Judges 4

Deborah and Barak

1After Ehud died, the Israelites again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. 2Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. 3The Israelites cried out to Yahweh, for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had oppressed the Israelites harshly. 4At that time Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. 5She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her for judgment. 6She sent for Barak son of Abinoam, from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded: ‘Go, march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. 7I will draw out Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops, to the Wadi Kishon, and I will give him into your hand’?” 8Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9She said, “Very well, I will go with you. But the road you are taking will bring you no glory, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; ten thousand men followed him up, and Deborah went up with him. 11Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, near Kedesh. 12When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13he summoned all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the troops with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Wadi Kishon. 14Deborah said to Barak, “Up! This is the day Yahweh has given Sisera into your hand. Has not Yahweh gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15And Yahweh threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into confusion before Barak’s sword; Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. 16Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and Sisera’s whole army fell by the sword; not a single man was left. 17But Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her, into the tent, and she covered him with a blanket. 19He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; I am thirsty.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again. 20He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’” 21Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, went to him quietly, and drove the peg through his temple into the ground, while he was fast asleep from exhaustion. So he died. 22Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” He went in with her, and there was Sisera, lying dead, with the peg through his temple. 23So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24And the hand of the Israelites bore down harder and harder on Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed him.