woman’s skirts. Jael is decidedly and decisively different, with her fatal mallet and tent peg at the ready. These contrasts in this chapter remind me of General Haig’s “compliment” concerning Mrs Thatcher: that she was the best man in the British cabinet! (iv) The end of this military story corresponds perfectly to its beginning. It opens and closes with Jabin himself. It opens with him oppressing Israel cruelly, or “mightily”, and closes with a contrast being realized: Israel is increasingly