The Song of Deborah #4

   In screenwriting, there is a trick/gimmick often used. You hear a phrase or sentence that gets repeated, changing meaning slightly with each repetition. It may be funny or it may turn into something profound. 

   Some of them - like the bicyclist in Steve Martin's version of The Pink Panther - really need to occur at least 3 times. Humor often comes in threes. I waited and waited to see the bicyclist the third time, ready to howl with laughter, but we didn't get that 3rd time.

   In the first installments of The Song of Deborah, did you read something that looks like it could become a tagline? Feel free to put it in the comment section.
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   Last week, Jael and Heber decided to stay in Zanaaim rather than going back to their homeland. Barak left his younger sisters and brother to visit Judge Deborah. Deborah tends to be passionate and dramatic while shouldering the great burden of judging Israel. Her vivacity is sometimes a painful contrast with her husband's stern and sad emptiness. 
   Barak is about to discover that contrast.
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INT. LAPIDOTH’S TENT - EVENING

Fading light trickles through a hole in the tent’s ceiling. A yellowed curtain separates a cramped library from a tinier bedroom.

Lapidoth enters, squints at the ceiling. He shakes his head.

LAPIDOTH: Not another one. When to find the time? Or the money.

Lapidoth methodically brushes off his clothes, rinses his hands in a water basin, splashes his face, slicks back his hair. He lights oil lamps, one by one.

He sorts through several scrolls, selects one, settles into a low couch. Next to him is a small dish of grapes. Without looking at them, he pulls one off the stem, munches.
He closes his eyes.
Deborah bursts into the tent, pulling Barak in her wake.

DEBORAH: Lapidoth! You must speak with Barak! 

Lapidoth sets aside his scroll, slowly rises. He doesn’t speak until Deborah catches her breath, measures her speech.

LAPIDOTH: Shalom, dear. Have we a guest?
DEBORAH: Lapidoth, Barak. Barak, Lapidoth.

Lapidoth, curious, shakes Barak’s hand.

LAPIDOTH: Welcome, Barak. Shalom.

Lapidoth offers Barak a skin of water.
Barak drinks and drinks. Finally he wipes his mouth with his wrist, leaving a smudge of wet dust on his cheek.

BARAK: Thank you, sir.
DEBORAH: Barak brings news from Naphtali!

Lapidoth notes the empty goatskin. He extends his hand, receives the skin back from Barak.

LAPIDOTH: You’ve been on a long journey, boy. Please sit down. Enjoy some grapes until we have supper ready.
BARAK: Thank you, sir.

Barak looks about. There isn’t enough room for three to sit. He sits on the edge of the couch. He tentatively takes two grapes.

LAPIDOTH: Come, Deborah.

When his hosts are turned, Barak scarfs the whole bunch of grapes.


INT. LAPIDOTH’S TENT - LATER

Barak, kneeling, makes a small furrow in the dirt floor, builds it up to form a small mound. He writes in the dirt with long, masculine fingers.

BARAK: This is Mount Tabor, northeast of Zaanaim. Here’s Carmel by the Great Sea. Here’s the Jordan river valley and the sea of Chinnereth.

Barak glances for feedback from Deborah. She watches silently, intently. Lapidoth analyzes Barak more than the illustration in their floor.

BARAK: If we muster on Tabor and Sisera comes through the plain of Zaanaim, through Jezreel, we’ll have the advantage.
LAPIDOTH: What would make Sisera and Jabin camp in Zaanaim, in plain view?
BARAK: It might be a show of force: Sisera massing for the sheer pleasure of intimidating us. 
DEBORAH: But you think there is more.
BARAK: Yes. Sisera’s heavy armory hasn’t done well in the mountains. Something about it doesn’t quite make sense.
DEBORAH: Go on, Barak.
BARAK: Naphtali blocks a crossing here. Here is Harosheth, Sisera’s home. King Jabin is way over here, in Hazor. Look at this. Zebulun and Issachar are closer to Tabor than Sisera is to Jabin. 

Barak speaks faster with growing confidence.

BARAK: We northern tribes have usually been able to keep the hills. It has been the lower lands that have so frequently changed hands. 

Barak draws his finger through his “map.”

BARAK: For the Canaanites to meet, they might fight through Zebulun, but I think they’ll choose less resistance and take the plain, at least until Jabin can join forces with Sisera. If I were dragging nine hundred iron chariots, I’d conserve my energy. If the time of battle is during the dry season, like right now, I’d want to be by the rivers. Horses need water. So do men. The Kishon river would be the most reliable and strategic for both defense or offense.

Barak rocks onto his heels. He rubs the dirt off his hands. He looks up at Lapidoth’s stern face.

BARAK: Do I pass your test, sir?

Lapidoth, silent, strokes his beard.

DEBORAH: This will take great cooperation in Israel. Is it possible, Barak? How united are the northern tribes?
BARAK: My father had good relations with Asher, Zebulun and Issachar. I have already spoken with the men of Issachar. Between them all, I might have seven or eight thousand men.
LAPIDOTH: I do not wish to speak gloom, but I scarcely feel that is enough. Even if Sisera had only fifty men running with each chariot, even if he used only half of his nine hundred chariots, that would be over twenty two thousand men.

Barak sighs. Deborah shifts position. She stands.

DEBORAH: Gentlemen, it feels very still in the tent. I need fresh air. Continue if you wish, but not much more shall be accomplished tonight.

She quickly exits.

BARAK: But-
LAPIDOTH: Let her go, boy. 
BARAK: (incredulous) You just let her go into the night like that?
LAPIDOTH: How I control my wife is not your business. But yes, this I do permit. She will sit by the fire for a while and quiet herself. She will return more focused. It is her way. And she is right: there is nothing more to accomplish tonight. It is time to get you settled.

Lapidoth produces a sleeping mat and cushions for Barak. Barak helps lay them out.

BARAK: Lapidoth, are you ever jealous?
LAPIDOTH: Jealous? Of what, boy?
BARAK: Of Deborah. What is it like to be married to a judge and a prophet?
LAPIDOTH: To speak of such things before war is not prudent.
BARAK: I’m sorry. 
LAPIDOTH: Forgiven. It is late. We are all tired.
BARAK: So you do believe we will be at war. I just don’t see their motivation. We are already a conquered people. We work the land and Jabin takes the fruit. His men have first rights to the wells, to any pretty girls they want to claim. Why defeat a defeated people?
LAPIDOTH: Perhaps we are not as defeated as we believe. Perhaps the LORD will show us mercy once more, as in the days of Shamgar.
BARAK: And perhaps Israel will finally turn to the LORD with all her heart. Wouldn’t that be something!
LAPIDOTH: You serve the LORD, boy?
BARAK: With all my heart. It doesn’t make sense to abandon our God to serve the idols of these other nations. Each time we do, we get the snot beaten out of us. 

Lapidoth raises his eyebrow at Barak's choice of words.

Barak looks at the floor, shrugs.

BARAK: At this rate, there won’t be much of Israel left in a generation.

Lapidoth claps Barak’s shoulder. He smiles, surprisingly warmly.

LAPIDOTH: Do you need anything before I turn down the lamps?
BARAK: No, sir. Thank you.

Barak kicks off his sandals and sits on the mat. The movement exposes the scars on his legs.

LAPIDOTH: Good lord, boy, what happened to you?

Barak quickly covers his legs with a sheet. He turns away from Lapidoth, plumps his pillow.

BARAK: Nothing. I did something stupid when I was a kid. Nothing.
LAPIDOTH: Nothing? Very well. Shalom.
BARAK: Shalom, sir.

Lapidoth blows out all lamps but one near the door. He retires behind the curtain.

Barak nods off. He startles. He sleeps.

A VOICE: Barak.

Barak sits up. No one is there. The tent is the same.

BARAK: (hoarsely) Who’s there? Hello?

Silence. Barak lies down again.

A VOICE: Barak. Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun. And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

Barak sits bolt upright.

BARAK: Where are you? Who are you?

Silence.

Barak quietly gets up, looks about the tent. Lapidoth, alone, snores faintly. 

Barak takes a scroll and furiously writes.

Deborah bursts in.

DEBORAH: Barak! The LORD has spoken! Lapidoth!

Lapidoth appears. He deliberately holds Deborah tightly in his arms.

LAPIDOTH: Dearest, shh. Hush now. Regain your control.

She trembles, composes herself, stills.

DEBORAH: I am all right now. I am calm.

Lapidoth releases her.

LAPIDOTH: Good. What did the LORD say?

DEBORAH: He has spoken to Barak. He wants Barak to fight for Israel. He gives directions.

BARAK: What directions?

Deborah stares through Barak.

DEBORAH: Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, “Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?”

Barak pales.

BARAK: What else did the LORD say?

DEBORAH: "And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand."

BARAK: Deborah, that is exactly what I heard tonight. See? I wrote it.

Deborah reads from the scroll.

DEBORAH: Mount Tabor.... Ten thousand of Naphtali. Zebulun. River Kishon. Sisera. Deliver.

BARAK: What does it all mean?

DEBORAH: Barak, God has heard the prayers of His people!

Deborah clutches the scroll close to her heart as if it were the Torah itself. She stops herself, returns the scroll to Barak. He offers it to Lapidoth.

Lapidoth reads silently. He nods, quotes Moses.

LAPIDOTH: “Out of the mouths of two or three witnesses shall everything be established.” You have each heard from the LORD tonight.

BARAK: Then why am I so afraid?