17 Now Sisera fled away on foot 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 . 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera , and said to him, "Turn aside , my master , turn aside to me! Do not be afraid ." And he turned aside to her into the tent , and she covered him with a rug . 19 He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink , for I am thirsty ." So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink ; then she covered him. 20 He said to her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent , and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says , 'Is there anyone here ?' that you shall say , 'No .' " 21 But Jael , Heber's wife , took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand , and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple , and it went through into the ground ; for he was sound asleep and exhausted . So he died .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 4:17-21
Commentary on Judges 4:17-24
(Read Judges 4:17-24)
Sisera's chariots had been his pride and his confidence. Thus are those disappointed who rest on the creature; like a broken reed, it not only breaks under them, but pierces them with many sorrows. The idol may quickly become a burden, Isaiah 46:1; what we were sick for, God can make us sick of. It is probable that Jael really intended kindness to Sisera; but by a Divine impulse she was afterwards led to consider him as the determined enemy of the Lord and of his people, and to destroy him. All our connexions with God's enemies must be broken off, if we would have the Lord for our God, and his people for our people. He that had thought to have destroyed Israel with his many iron chariots, is himself destroyed with one iron nail. Thus the weak things of the world confound the mighty. The Israelites would have prevented much mischief, if they had sooner destroyed the Canaanites, as God commanded and enabled them: but better be wise late, and buy wisdom by experience, than never be wise.