ABSTRACT
When I first read the book of Judges as a whole, I was surprised to see that the famous wicked woman, Delilah, had two colleagues in evil. Two other women tricked a male hero into a trap and killed him. In spite of her participation in the "right" cause, Yael, the murderess of Sisera, is generally criticized by commentators. She is blamed for breaking the sacred laws of hospitality and for the cruelty of her method of killing.2 In fact, we need only to reverse the perspective and take the side of the Philistines to become aware of the close resemblance between the two murder stories. A third murderess is not so much blamed for her deed by commentaries, but fits the schema pretty well: the woman-with-the-millstone who, in 9:53, kills Abimelech. Although her deed is liberating, the victim himself thematizes the gender issue that underlies the event, and that is also elaborated in the prose version of Yael's act in chapter 4. It is shameful to be killed by a woman.
