Judges 5:26

While he was standing (Judges 5:27) and about to drink, Jael dealt him a shattering blow with a wooden implement. We are tempted to suppose that, if he had drunk, he would have been protected by the laws of Eastern hospitality. So in The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott makes Saladin dash the cup from the hand of the Grand Master of the Templars before assassinating him; had he tasted it, he would have been safe. Talismanp. 535 (ed. 1879 A. and C. Black). In Judges 4:19, however, Jael has no scruples about killing Sisera after he has partaken of her hospitality.

According to the parallelism of Hebr. poetry her handand her right handmean the same thing; and so should nailand workmen's hammer. But can the latter term be thus rendered? workmenought rather to be sufferers, worn outwith toil and misery, Job 3:20; Job 20:22; the meaning laboureris only found in Proverbs 16:26 (late); moreover hammer(a doubtful form, and a different word from malletin Judges 4:21) can hardly be another name for nailor tent-peg. What is meant by this synonym we do not know; but it is clear that Jael used one weapon, not two. The account in Judges 4:21 gives a different version of the tradition. Translate the last two lines:

And she hammered Sisera, shattered his head,

And crushed and clave his temples.

The word rendered clavemight perhaps mean caused to pass away, made to vanish; properly it = pass on, or through, here apparently in the sense of piercing, cf. Job 20:24. The description is that of a heavy, crushing blow.