Judges — Chapter 4

Deborah, a prophetess, judged Israel at that time. The name Deborah means \"bee\" — she is sharp to sting sinners with rebuke, and sweet in the honey of divine wisdom. That a woman judged Israel was extraordinary; God can raise up any instrument He chooses. Lapide: Deborah is a type of the Church teaching and ruling.

Deborah prophesies: \"The Lord shall sell Sisara into the hand of a woman.\" This was fulfilled literally in Jael; but allegorically foretells the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose womb and by whose fiat the great enemy of mankind was overcome. Lapide: the victory over the enemy is always granted through a woman.

Jael drives the nail into Sisara's temples. Allegorically: Jael is a type (typus) of the Church militant, and especially of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who crushed the head of the diabolical Sisara by her humility, virginity, and fiat. Lapide cites the Fathers at length on Jael as figura Mariae.