Judges 5

1Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:

2When leaders took the lead in Israel, when the people volunteered, bless the LORD!

3Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers. I, to Yahweh, I will sing; I will make music to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

4O Yahweh, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth trembled; the heavens also dripped, the clouds also dripped water.

5The mountains quaked before Yahweh, this Sinai before Yahweh, the God of Israel.

6In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, and travelers went by roundabout paths.

7Village life ceased in Israel; it ceased until I, Deborah, arose—until I arose as a mother in Israel.

8They chose new gods; then war was at the gates. Was a shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?

9My heart is with the leaders of Israel, who volunteered among the people. Bless Yahweh!

10You who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on carpets, and you who walk on the road—speak!

11From the sound of archers among the watering places, there they recount the righteous acts of Yahweh, the righteous acts of his villagers in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.

12Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, sing a song! Rise up, Barak, and take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.

13Then the remnant came down against the nobles; the people of Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.

14From Ephraim those whose root was in Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. From Machir commanders came down, and from Zebulun those who wield the staff of the scribe.

15And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; and Issachar was likewise with Barak; into the valley they were sent at his feet. Among the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

16Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

17Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan—why did he sojourn by the ships? Asher sat by the seashore and stayed by his harbors.

18Zebulun was a people that risked its life to the death, and Naphtali also, on the heights of the field.

19Kings came; they fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they took no plunder of silver.

20From heaven the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

21The torrent of Kishon swept them away— the ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. March on, my soul, with strength!

22Then the horses’ hoofs pounded from the galloping, the galloping of his mighty steeds.

23Curse Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh; curse, utterly curse its inhabitants, because they did not come to the help of Yahweh, to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.

24Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; among women in the tent, most blessed is she.

25He asked for water; she gave milk. In a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curds.

26She reached out her hand for the tent peg, her right hand for the workmen’s hammer; then she struck Sisera, she shattered his head, she smashed and pierced his temple.

27Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—destroyed.

28Through the window Sisera’s mother looked out and wailed through the lattice: “Why is his chariot so late in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots delay?”

29Her wisest princesses answer her; indeed, she herself repeats her words to herself:

30‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? A womb, two wombs for each man; spoil of dyed cloths for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloths, embroidered cloth, dyed cloth, two embroideries for the necks of the spoil.’

31So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh, but may those who love him be like the rising of the sun in its strength. And the land had rest forty years.