84 Elie Assis 19,2). While Lot’s words are clear: “turn…into…house” (µkdb[ tym la wrws) Yael uses the same verb but applies it to herself: “turn into me” (yla wrws). This form resembles another sexual formula la abyw. Yael’s greeting and invitation allude to the terminology and descriptions of a prostitute in the Book of Proverbs (9,15-16) (7). The sibilance of the invitation in the original Hebrew may be meant as well to underscore the sensuality contained in Yael’s voice (8). The repetition of the fact that Yael covers Sisera is also part of a sexual setting (vv. 18, 19). And certainly the fact that the whole scene takes place in Yael’s bed creates a sexual atmosphere (9). It is reasonable to assume that the attraction that Yael dissembles for Sisera is the cause for his confidence in her; he even trusts her with his life. Sexuality is also prominent in the encounter between Yael and Barak. First, she goes out to greet Barak “Yael came out to meet him”. Then she invites him into the tent to see Sisera’s condition, but when the narrator describes his entrance to the tent he chooses the term “he came into her” (hyla awbyw) that may also indicate sexual intercourse, midrashically expounded. (7) In both stories the behaviours of the men is presented ironically compared with that of the women. The king and his soldiers seem pathetic when they immediately believe the harlot that her customers are not in the house. The type of hospitality Yael offers Sisera reflects his childlike helplessness: she gives him a drink and covers him with a blanket. It is ironic that a woman kills an experienced warrior who has survived the battlefield(10). The assistance that Rahab provides the spies also presents them in an ironic light. The spies are passive in comparison with Rahab who actively hides them, allowing them to escape from the city: “But the woman took the two men and hid them” (Josh 2,4); “She brought them up to the roof and hid them” (Josh 2,6). “Then she let them down by a rope through the window” (Josh 2,15). She also gives them good advice about where to escape (Josh 2,16), and she is the dominant party in the dialogue with the spies. Barak is presented in an unflattering manner when she invites him into her tent to see that the man that he has been pursuing has already been put to death (Judg 4,22). Both Yael and Rahab are in control of the men they want to subdue and the men whom they plan to help. It is in their power to decide who will triumph and who will fail. The encounters of Yael and Rahab with men are presented in a similar (7) An extensive description of a woman’s seductions is found in Prov 7,5-23. (8) About alliteration in biblical narrative see: L. ALONSO SCHÖKEL, A Manual of Hebrew Poetics (Subsidia Biblica 11; Rome 1988) 20-29. The Babylonian Talmud Megilah 15a realizes the inviting tone of Yael’s words: “Rahab inspired lust by her name; Yael by her voice, Abigail by her memory; Michal daughter of Saul by her appearance”. (9) Reference to sexual intercourse is apparent in the poetic account in Judg 5, 27. This remark was midrashically expounded by R. Johanan in the Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 103a. On the sexual allusions see also: Y. ZAKOVITCH, “Sisseras Tod”, ZAW 93 (1981) 364- 374. S. NIDITCH, “Eroticism and Death in the Tale of Jael”, Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel (ed. P.L. DAY) (Minneapolis 1989) 43-57. R. ALTER, The Art of Biblical Poetry (New York 1985) 48-49. Sexual allusions are explicit in the pseudepigraphic book Pseudo-Philo 31:3: “Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite adorned herself and went out to meet him; now the woman was very beautiful… And Sisera went in, and when he saw roses scattered on the bed, he said, ‘if I am saved, I will go to my mother, and Yael will be my wife’”. (10) For the shame of a man killed by a woman see also Judg 9,53-54; 2 Sam 11,21.