1. Judges 4:11 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is significant in the mention of the oak tree?

Judges 4:11 (ESV)

11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

This will be relevant later in the narrative, in Judges 4:17. Jael’s dwelling is pictured in relation to a tree, in this case an oak. Jael will function as a twin of Deborah, in stepping in to help because her husband Heber was in a sinful alliance with Jabin. She will not go along with his sin. Instead, she will make her own judgment in favor of the Lord.1