Deborah

[Judg. 2:16] Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
The judges who governed Israel were strictly G-d's vicegerents in the government of the people, He being the supreme ruler. Those who were thus elevated retained the dignity as long as they lived; but there was no regular, unbroken succession of judges. Individuals, prompted by the inward, irresistible impulse of G-d's Spirit when they witnessed the depressed state of their country, were roused to achieve its deliverance. It was usually accompanied by a special call, and the people seeing them endowed with extraordinary courage or strength, accepted them as delegates of Heaven, and submitted to their sway. Frequently they were appointed only for a particular district, and their authority extended no farther than over the people whose interests they were commissioned to protect. They were without pomp, equipage, or emoluments attached to the office. They had no power to make laws; for these were given by G-d; nor to explain them, for that was the province of the priests - but they were officially upholders of the law, defenders of religion, avengers of all crimes, particularly of idolatry and its attendant vices.
Judges function is to rescue G-d’s oppressed people from marauding bands and to keep them safe from enemy power during the lifetime of a particular judge. The Hebrew word translated as judge, may also mean deliver.
As executive officer the judge would preside over intertribal councils and exercise judicial, military, and cultic functions. Judging the people with righteous judgment, without partiality or bribe, following justice, and only justice in the land. A righteous judge would oppose those who judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper and do not defend the rights of the needy.
Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess; she judged Israel at that time. She used to sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her for decisions. Deborah’s husband was an uneducated man. She made thick candlewicks and told her husband to bring them to the holy site in Shiloh were righteous men studied. G-d smiled upon her actions: Deborah, your efforts provided ample light for the study of My Torah; I, in turn, will make the light of your prophecy shine throughout all of Israel.
Deborah lived at the southernmost point of the Canaanite kingdom; the palm tree she sat beneath is often popularly identified with Allon-Baccuth, the burial site of Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah. The Talmudic Sages tell us that Deborah had great wealth, which allowed her to dispense justice with no need for remuneration. One day; Deborah chooses to embark upon a military plan to finally free her people from the Canaanite oppression, a seemingly impossible venture given their inferior military might. Deborah summons Barak, a man from the northern tribe of Naphtali, intending to appoint him as military commander of her mission.
And Deborah, a prophetess was a woman of extraordinary knowledge, wisdom, and piety, instructed in divine knowledge by the Spirit and accustomed to interpret His will; who acquired an extensive influence, and was held in universal respect, insomuch that she became the animating spirit of the government and discharged all the special duties of a judge, except that of military leader.
She was the wife of Lapidoth, rendered by some, "a woman of splendors”.
She dwelt under the palm tree - or, collectively, "palm-grove”. It is common still in the East to administer justice in the open air, or under the canopy of an umbrageous tree. The ferment for reform that led to liberation began in the Ephraimite hill country under the palm tree, where the oppressed people came to her for relief from injustice. Canaanite economic oppression backed up by military power had begun to move down into Ephraim. According to the Scribes time frame, this area had recently been liberated from Moabite colonial oppression on the east by Ehud and from expansionist pressure from the pre-Philistine Sea people on the west along the Gezer-Aijalon road by Shamgar. Deborah arose at that time as Israel’s mother-savior.
She sent and called Barak by virtue of her official authority as judge. His somewhat singular request to be accompanied by Deborah was not altogether the result of weakness. The Orientals always take what is dearest to the battlefield along with them; they think it makes them fight better. The policy of Barak, then, to have the presence of the prophetess is perfectly intelligible as it would no less stimulate the valor of the troops, than sanction, in the eyes of Israel, the uprising against an oppressor so powerful as Jabin. Barak reasoned that because the Holy Spirit rests upon her, that he would be delivered through her merit and come to no harm. Barak is requesting that Deborah accompany him up to Kadesh wherein, together, they will summon volunteer warriors from the northern tribes.
The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman this was a prediction which Barak could not understand at the time; but the strain of it conveyed a rebuke of his unmanly fears. Deborah in her role as a mother in Israel, modestly disappears from the narrative after her inspiring words to Barak on Mt. Tabor. When later generations remembered this incident, they thought of Barak the man instead of Deborah the woman (1 Sam. 12:11; Heb. 11:32; Ps. 83:9).
Deborah’s prophecy that “the L-rd will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman” was fulfilled. For forty years hence, Israel was in peace, but what of Jael’s cruel act? “A transgression (committed) with good intent is more meritorious than the performance of a commandment with no intent.” Deborah and Barak immortalized the victory in a famous ode or song.
“Awake, awake, o Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! (5:12). Deborah was looked up to as one of the great leaders and judges of the tribes in the period before the kingdom; she was the fifth judge of Israel. It is also said that Reuben, Leah’s firstborn, isolated east of the Jordan, was involved in the rebellion against Moses and is rebuked by Deborah for the tribe’s failure to share the defense of the land. Neither Simeon, the second born, nor Judah is mentioned in the blessing of Moses or in the song of Deborah.