Who is the most blessed of women: Mary or Jael?

Neither phrase sets out to rank one woman above every woman who has ever lived. Both are Hebrew ways of giving the highest praise. Biblical Hebrew has no special form for ‘most’, and often expresses it with a phrase such as ‘blessed among women’ or ‘blessed above women’. The BSB renders Judges 5:24 “Most blessed among women is Jael”, and Barnes says that Luke’s phrase is the same as calling Mary the most happy of women. Praise like this is given for a particular deed or calling, and it can be given to more than one person without contradiction.

Deborah’s song itself limits its praise. Jael is to be blessed “above women in the tent”, that is, among women who lived in tents, as Jael’s semi-nomadic people, the Kenites, did (Judges 4:11, 17). Keil and Delitzsch explain the ‘women in the tent’ as tent-dwellers or shepherdesses. Jael is honoured as the most blessed of such women for her courage in killing the commander who had oppressed Israel (Judges 4:21; 5:25–27).

Mary is called blessed for something unique: she was chosen to bear the Son of God, as Elizabeth’s next words say, “blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). Mary herself says that “all generations shall call me blessed” (1:48). In Luke 11:27–28 Jesus does not take this away. He says that hearing and keeping God’s word is a greater blessing than being his mother by birth, and Luke has already shown that Mary did just that (1:38, 45). So Jael is the most blessed of tent-dwelling women for one brave act, and Mary is blessed among women for her unique calling and her faith.