"Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be;
blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she
gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put
her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workman's hammer;
and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when
she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he
bowed, he fell, he lay down; at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he
bowed, there he fell down dead. The mother of Sisera looked out at
a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long
in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?" (Jud. v, 24-28.)
We wish to place before our children, for their emulation, good
and noble characters. We have been taught that in the Bible such
characters may be found. You desire a model woman to place before your
daughter. What one will you select? Here is a woman whom the Bible
pronounces "blessed above women." This must be a suitable model,
then. Blessed for what? For committing one of the most infamous
of murders.
We had a Kansas girl who followed in the footsteps of this
"blessed woman." Years ago, across the prairies of southern Kansas
stretched a lonely road. By its side, far from other habitations,
stood an unpretentious dwelling, inhabited by four persons--father,
mother, son, and daughter. But the daughter was the ruling spirit
there. Their only volume, we are told, was a Bible, and this the
daughter read. The house contains two rooms besides the cellar. The
rooms are separated simply by a curtain. In the front room is kept a
small stock of groceries. Here, too, with its back against the curtain,
and fastened to the floor, stands a chair. Above the door is a sign
with this inviting word, "Provisions." A traveler enters and makes some
purchases, displaying a well-filled purse. He is treated hospitably,
and invited to remain awhile and rest. Wearied, he drops into the
chair, his head pressing against the curtain. Armed with a hammer,
this follower of Jael now approaches from the rear. One well-directed
blow, and the tired traveler sinks into eternal rest. His pockets are
rifled, and his body thrown into the cellar, to be taken out at night
and buried in the little garden behind the dwelling. Time rolls on;
the traveler does not return. Day after day his wife at home, with
anxious heart, peers through the window and sighs, "Why don't he
come?" At length suspicion rests upon this den of infamy. A search
is instituted, and the garden is found to be a cemetery, filled with
the bodies of murdered travelers--one a little child. In the mean
time this female monster with her kin has fled. Detectives are still
searching for her. They'll never find her. Where is she? In heaven
with Jael. Now let some modern Deborah sing, "Blessed above maidens
shall Kate Bender be!"
War.
I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because it sanctions
wars of conquest and extermination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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