A Woman who occupies a position of respect and authority—no, it's not a common occurrence in the Bible. Most of the leaders are men. Prophets, judges, military advisors, war heroes. There is, however, one woman who was all of these. It was Deborah.
It's not clear what got her to this point of achievement. In fact, most of her life is a mystery.
Why, for instance, did she hold court under a palm tree, which the Bible refers to as the Palm of Deborah? Why was she named Honeybee, the meaning of Deborah in Hebrew? Was she known more for her sweetness or her sting? Since the Bible has little at all to say about Deborah's background—her story is confined to just two chapters of the book of Judges—it's impossible to know much. One thing we do know is that Israel counted on Deborah in matters of decisionmaking.
