Deborah

Deborah (meaning a bee) is the name of two women in the Old Testament. (1.) Rebekah's nurse, who accompanied her mistress from Paddan-aram to Canaan and died at Bethel, where she was buried under the oak of weeping, Allon-bachuth (Genesis 24:59; 35:8). (2.) A prophetess and the fourth judge of Israel, the only woman to hold that office, who "held court" under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel (Judges 4:4–5). She summoned Barak son of Abinoam to lead Israel's army against Sisera, the commander of Jabin's Canaanite forces, with ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. When Barak refused to go without her, she accompanied him but prophesied that the honor of killing Sisera would go to a woman (Judges 4:9). Israel's victory, accomplished when Sisera was killed by Jael, is celebrated in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), one of the oldest and most elaborate poems in the Old Testament.