Jabin king of Canaan יבין מלך כנען
the king who reigned in Hazor; twenty years of harsh oppression
"And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the captain of his host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-hagoyim." And then it is explained where his strength lay: "for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he oppressed the children of Israel harshly twenty years."
Hazor stands in the north, above the Kinneret; the book of Joshua calls it earlier "the head of all those kingdoms." The name Jabin appears there too—apparently a dynastic name of the kings of Hazor rather than one man.
The book does not put the resolution on him: Jabin is not beaten in a single day. "And God subdued on that day Jabin king of Canaan before the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had cut him off."
The window is the twenty years of verse 4:3, placed by Seder Olam Rabbah 12 at the start of the forty years of Deborah and Barak.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shoftim 4:2–3 — nine hundred iron chariots and twenty years of oppression
- Shoftim 4:23–24 — the hand of Israel grew heavier until Jabin was cut off
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Seder Olam Rabbah 12 — Jabin's twenty years fall within the forty of Deborah and Barak
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.