The Hebrew ya'el means ibex, a nimble, sure-footed mountain goat native to that region.

Heber the Kenite (חבר הקיני‎) was, according to the Book of Judges, a descendant of Jethro the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses.

He had separated himself and his wife Jael from the other Kenites and pitched their tent in the plain of Zaanaim, which is near Kedesh in the territory of the Tribe of Naphtali.

[5] Deborah, a prophetess and judge, advised Barak to mobilize the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon on Mount Tabor to do battle against King Jabin of Canaan.

Quietly, Jael took a mallet and drove a tent peg through Sisera's temple into the ground while he was sleeping, killing him instantly.

[7][3] Jael was then the woman with the honor of defeating Jabin's army, as prophesied by Deborah, and she showed Barak Sisera's dead body in her tent.

"[11]According to the Talmud, Jael engaged in sexual intercourse with Sisera seven times, but because she was attempting to exhaust him in order to kill him, her sin was for Heaven's sake and therefore praiseworthy.

[19] Jael, along with Ehud, is an example in Judges of the contrast between marginal heroes and well-armed enemies conquered by wit and stealth.

[7] Albert Barnes conjectures that Jael sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty-year period of harsh oppression inflicted on them by Jabin.

[citation needed] Medieval images of Jael, mostly in illuminated manuscripts, depicted her as both a defender of Israel and a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary.

When not shown in the act of killing Sisera, she carries her hammer and sometimes the spike, making her easy to identify.

[21] Here she was used to show the risk for men in following women, in groupings including positive figures and scenes such as Judith beheading Holofernes, but mostly ones with females depicted as over-powerful, such as Phyllis riding Aristotle, Samson and Delilah, Salome and her mother Herodias and the Idolatry of Solomon.

Works by Gregorio Lazzarini and Artemisia Gentileschi are two examples of an attractive Jael, shown in the act of killing her foe.