Judges 5

The Song of Deborah

5Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam ^asang on that day, saying:

²“When ¹leaders ^blead in Israel,

^cWhen the people ²willingly offer themselves,

Bless the Lord!

³“Hear, ^dO kings! Give ear, O princes!

I, even ^eI, will sing to the Lord;

I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.

⁴“Lord, ^fwhen You went out from Seir,

When You marched from ^gthe field of Edom,

The earth trembled and the heavens poured,

The clouds also poured water;

^5hThe mountains ³gushed before the Lord,

ⁱThis Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of ^jShamgar, son of Anath,

In the days of ^kJael,

^lThe highways were deserted,

And the travelers walked along the byways.

⁷Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel,

Until I, Deborah, arose,

Arose a mother in Israel.

⁸They chose ^mnew gods;

Then there was war in the gates;

Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart is with the rulers of Israel

Who offered themselves willingly with the people.

Bless the Lord!

¹⁰“Speak, you who ride on white ⁿdonkeys,

Who sit in judges’ attire,

And who walk along the road.

¹¹Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places,

There they shall recount the righteous acts of the Lord,

The righteous acts for His villagers in Israel;

Then the people of the Lord shall go down to the gates.

¹²“Awake, ^oawake, Deborah!

Awake, awake, sing a song!

Arise, Barak, and lead your captives away,

O son of Abinoam!

¹³“Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles;

The Lord came down for me against the mighty.

¹⁴From Ephraim were those whose roots were in ^pAmalek.

After you, Benjamin, with your peoples,

From Machir rulers came down,

And from Zebulun those who bear the recruiter’s staff.

¹⁵And ⁴the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;

As Issachar, so was Barak

Sent into the valley ⁵under his command;

Among the divisions of Reuben

There were great resolves of heart.

¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,

To hear the pipings for the flocks?

The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.

^17qGilead stayed beyond the Jordan,

And why did Dan remain ⁶on ships?

^rAsher continued at the seashore,

And stayed by his inlets.

^18sZebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death,

Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

¹⁹“The kings came and fought,

Then the kings of Canaan fought

In ^tTaanach, by the waters of Megiddo;

They took no spoils of silver.

²⁰They fought from the heavens;

The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.

^21uThe torrent of Kishon swept them away,

That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon.

O my soul, march on in strength!

²²Then the horses’ hooves pounded,

The galloping, galloping of his steeds.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the ⁷angel of the Lord,

‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,

Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,

To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed among women is Jael,

The wife of Heber the Kenite;

^vBlessed is she among women in tents.

²⁵He asked for water, she gave milk;

She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.

²⁶She stretched her hand to the tent peg,

Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;

She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,

She split and struck through his temple.

²⁷At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;

At her feet he sank, he fell;

Where he sank, there he fell ^wdead.

²⁸“The mother of Sisera looked through the window,

And cried out through the lattice,

‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?’

²⁹Her wisest ⁸ladies answered her,

Yes, she ⁹answered herself,

³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil:

To every man a girl or two;

For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments,

Plunder of garments embroidered and dyed,

Two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’

³¹“Thus let all Your enemies ^xperish, O Lord!

But let those who love Him be ^ylike the ^zsun

When it comes out in full ^astrength.”

So the land had rest for forty years.