Jael and Sisera
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Judges 4:21
The passage
Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Judges 4:21
About this plate
Jael stands in the middle of her own tent with one arm up, holding the door flap back. She is fully dressed, headdress and long robes, and she is perfectly calm. On the ground in front of her, face down in his armour, is Sisera.
Look through the opening she is making. Out on the plain there is a rider and men with spears, coming. She is not fleeing and she is not hiding him. She is holding the tent open so they can see in.
The verse is the killing itself. She took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground. Doré draws none of that, and at this size you cannot even find the nail.
Her other hand is empty and her face is composed. All the violence is in the verse. The plate is about the moment she decides to show somebody.
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