"Was Sisera killed in his sleep?" (Alleged Contradiction #E2474)
Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Judges 4:21
She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
Judges 5:26-27
Response
Sisera was lying down when Jael killed him, of course. It would be impossible for Sisera to be standing up while killed in this manner.
The song in Judges 5 is simply stating that Sisera “bowed down” and “fell” at Jael’s feet. It does not say that he died before this; in fact, it says the opposite: “where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” Furthermore, this passage is a song sung by Deborah and Barak, and as such, can use metaphoric language, unlike a historical account.
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