Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
Sisera fled ... to the tent of Jael - i:e. (roe, Proverbs 5:19, English version), wild goat, gazelle [Septuagint, Iaeel]. Sisera fled ... to the tent of Jael - i:e. (roe, Proverbs 5:19, English version), wild goat, gazelle [Septuagint, Iaeel]. According to the usages of nomadic people, the duty of receiving the stranger in the sheikh's absence devolves on his wife; and the moment the stranger is admitted into the tent, his claim to be defended or concealed from his pursuers is established. But how came the tent of Heber to be pitched in the neighbourhood of Carmel, when it was stated that he residence was at "the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh"? (Judges 4:11.) 'An incident which happened to myself,' says Dr. Thomson ('The Land and the Book,'
i., p. 145), 'will explain why Heber was found at the bottom of the plain at the time of the battle. With a guide from Nazareth, I once crossed the lower part of Esdraelon in the winter. It was then full of Arab tents. The home of those nomads was in the mountains north of Nazareth, toward Safet; and they came down here only to pass the cold mouths of winter. This was the very thing that Heber did; and if any one should object, that if Heber lived near Kadesh, why not descend to the Huleh immediately below for the winter, rather than migrate to this distant place? for the simple reason, I answer, that this place was under the government of his ally, Jabin, and the other was not.'