Judges 5:20–30

²⁰The stars fought from heaven;

from their courses they fought against Sisera.^*

²¹The torrent Kishon swept them away,

the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.

March on, my soul, with might!^*

²²Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs

with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.

²³Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord;

curse bitterly its inhabitants,

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

to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

²⁴Most blessed of women be Jael,

the wife of Heber the Kenite,

of tent-dwelling women most blessed.^*

²⁵Water he asked, milk she gave;

she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.^*

²⁶She put her hand to the tent peg

and her right hand to the workers’ mallet;

she struck Sisera a blow;

she crushed his head;

she shattered and pierced his temple.^*

²⁷Between her feet he sank, he fell,

he lay still;

between her feet he sank, he fell;

where he sank, there he fell dead.

²⁸Out of the window she peered;

the mother of Sisera gazed^v through the lattice:

‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’^*

²⁹Her wisest ladies make answer;

indeed, she answers the question herself:

³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?

A woman or two for every man;

spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,

spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,

two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?’^*