Judges 4:6–22

⁶Now she sent and summoned ^aBarak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “¹Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun.

⁷‘I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his ¹many troops to the river Kishon, and ^aI will give him into your hand.’ ”

⁸Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

⁹She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, ^afor the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak called ^aZebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up ^1bwith him; Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber ^athe Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the ¹oak in ^bZaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹²Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.

¹³Sisera called together all his chariots, ^anine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from ^bHarosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hands; ¹behold, ^athe Lord has gone out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

^15aThe Lord ¹routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot.

¹⁶But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; ^anot even one was left.

¹⁷Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a ¹rug.

^19aHe said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a ¹bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.

²⁰He said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’ ”

²¹But Jael, Heber’s wife, ^atook a tent peg and ¹seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.

²²And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And he entered ¹with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.