Bible in art · Judges

Jael Killing Sisera

Lucas van Leyden · 1516/1519
National Gallery of Art, Washington

This woodcut, made around 1516–19, belongs to a small series by Lucas van Leyden on famous women of the Bible and old stories. Its lines are thick and simple, cut in wood.

In the front, Jael kneels on the sleeping Sisera and raises her hammer. Through the doorway at the left, a woman gives a soldier a drink. At the back, a woman points out the dead man to armed men at the door.

From the text

Jael gave Sisera milk to drink (Judges 4:19)
She drove the tent peg through his temple as he slept (Judges 4:21)
“Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking” (Judges 4:22)

The artist’s own

A brick house with a shelf of jars instead of a tent
Three moments of the story in one picture
Sisera in the armour of Lucas’s time

Details

Jael

She kneels on Sisera, hammer raised.

Sisera

The captain lies on the floor in armour, his sword at his side.

The drink

Through the doorway a woman gives a soldier a drink.

Showing Barak

A woman points; armed men crowd at the door.

Lucas van Leyden, Netherlandish, c. 1489/94–1533. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.5700) · Woodcut · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Judg 4:17–22Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Do not be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again. “Stand at the entrance to the tent,” he said, “and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’” But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died. When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple.

See it at the museum’s site