Judges 4:19

Judges 4:19 a

‘And he said to her, “Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink, for I am parched.”

It should be noted that up to this stage she had not offered hospitality. Perhaps he should have taken a hint from that. To hide a male fugitive in your tent might be one thing, to feed him there another. So he has committed another breach of etiquette.

Much is made here by commentators of the question of hospitality, but it is questionable whether that was always seen as fully applying to women. There was no hospitality shown to the woman when the old man offered the Levite's concubine to the sodomites gathered outside his house (Judges 19:24), even though she had eaten at his table. It was the preservation of the men that was seen as important. That may suggest that in hospitality matters it was often in fact the menfolk who were seen as the ones who counted. Perhaps the women were in many cases merely sheltered because of their menfolk. Thus Jael may not have felt that similar laws applied to her. And the laws of hospitality did not provide for a married woman having a man alone with her in her tent. That was a flagrant breach of hospitality.

Judges 4:19 b

‘And she opened a leather skin of milk, and gave him drink and covered him.'

It may be she had no water, or perhaps she was trying to reassure him of her friendly intent. The covering was probably so that he could sleep.