Judges 5

DEBORAH’S SONG

5On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang:

²When the leaders lead^A in Israel,

when the people volunteer,

blessed be the Lord.

³Listen, kings! Pay attention, princes!

I will sing to the Lord;

I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.

⁴Lord, when you came from Seir,^a

when you marched from the fields of Edom,

the earth trembled,^b

the skies poured^c rain,

and the clouds poured water.

⁵The mountains melted before the Lord,

even Sinai,^A before the Lord, the God of Israel.^d

⁶In the days of Shamgar^e son of Anath,

in the days of Jael,^f

the main roads were deserted

because travelers kept to the side roads.

⁷Villages were deserted,^B

they were deserted in Israel,

until I,^C Deborah, arose,

a mother in Israel.

⁸Israel chose new gods,

then there was war in the city gates.

Not a shield or spear was seen

among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart is with the leaders of Israel,

with the volunteers of the people.

Blessed be the Lord!

¹⁰You who ride on white^B donkeys,

who sit on saddle blankets,

and who travel on the road, give praise!

¹¹Let them tell the righteous acts^g of the Lord,

the righteous deeds of his villagers in Israel,

with the voices of the singers at the watering places.^B

Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates.

¹²“Awake! Awake, Deborah!

Awake! Awake, sing a song!

Arise, Barak,

and take your prisoners,

son of Abinoam!”

¹³Then the survivors^h came down to the nobles;ⁱ

the Lord’s people came down to me^D against the warriors.

¹⁴Those with their roots in Amalek^E came from Ephraim;

Benjamin came with your people after you.

The leaders came down from Machir,^j

and those who carry a marshal’s staff came from Zebulun.

¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;

Issachar was with Barak;

they were under his leadership^Fk in the valley.

There was great searching^G of heart

among the clans of Reuben.

¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheep pens^H

listening to the playing of pipes for the flocks?

There was great searching of heart

among the clans of Reuben.

¹⁷Gilead^l remained beyond the Jordan.

Dan, why did you linger at the ships?

Asher remained at the seashore

and stayed in his harbors.

¹⁸The people of Zebulun defied death,

Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

¹⁹Kings came and fought.

Then the kings of Canaan fought

at Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo,

but they did not plunder the silver.

²⁰The stars fought from the heavens;

the stars fought with Sisera from their paths.

²¹The river Kishon swept them away,^m

the ancient river, the river Kishon.

March on, my soul, in strength!

²²The horses’ hooves then hammered—

the galloping, galloping of his^A stallions.

²³“Curse Meroz,” says the angel of the Lord,

“Bitterly curse her inhabitants,

for they did not come to help the Lord,

to help the Lord with the warriors.”

²⁴Jael is most blessed of women, is Jael,

the wife of Heber the Kenite;

she is most blessed among tent-dwelling women.

²⁵He asked for water; she gave him milk.

She brought him cream^a in a majestic bowl.

²⁶She reached for a tent peg,

her right hand, for a workman’s hammer.

Then she hammered Sisera—

she crushed his head;

she shattered and pierced his temple.

²⁷He collapsed, he fell, he lay down between her feet;

he collapsed, he fell between her feet;

where he collapsed, there he fell—dead.

²⁸Sisera’s mother looked through the window;

she peered through the lattice, crying out:

“Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why don’t I hear the hoofbeats of his horses?”^B

²⁹Her wisest princesses answer her;

she even answers herself:

³⁰“Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—

a girl or two^C for each warrior,

the spoil of colored garments for Sisera,

the spoil of an embroidered garment or two for my neck?”^D

³¹Lord, may all your enemies perish as Sisera did.^E

But may those who love him

be like the rising of the sun in its strength.

And the land had peace for forty years.