Judges 5

So Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang on that day, saying: 2 “For the loosening of long hair in Israel, for the volunteering of the people, bless God! \* 3 Listen, kings! Give ear, rulers! I, to God, {even} I, may I sing. I will make music to God, the God of Israel. 4 God, at your going forth from Seir, at your marching from the field of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens also dripped, the dark clouds also dripped water. \* 5 The mountains flowed from the face of God, this {is} Sinai from the face of God, the God of Israel. 6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, roads ceased, and walkers of paths walked crooked roads. \* 7 The peasantry ceased in Israel, they ceased, until when I, Deborah, arose, when I arose, a mother in Israel! 8 He chose new gods, then fighting {was} {at} the gates; was a shield seen, or a spear, among 40,000 in Israel? \* 9 My heart is to the commanders of Israel, the ones volunteering themselves among the people. Bless God! 10 Riders of white donkeys, sitters on carpet, walkers on the road, consider! \* 11 From the voice of the singers at the watering places, there they celebrate the righteous acts of God, the righteous acts of his peasantry in Israel. Then the people of God went down to the gates. \* 12 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, speak a song! Arise, Barak, and take captive your captivity, son of Abinoam. 13 Then the remnant came down to the nobles, the people of God came down to me against the warriors. \* 14 From Ephraim, their root {is} in Amalek; after you, Benjamin, with your peoples; from Machir, commanders came down; and from Zebulun, the ones holding the scepter of a scribe. \* 15 And my commanders in Issachar {were} with Deborah, and {as} Issachar, so Barak; into a valley he was sent at his feet. Among the divisions of Reuben, great {were} the searchings of the heart. \* 16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the piping for the flocks? As for the divisions of Reuben, great {were} the searchings of the heart. \* 17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, and Dan, why did he sojourn {on} ships? Asher remained at the coast of the seas, and he stayed among his harbors. 18 Zebulun {was} a people reproaching its soul unto death, also Naphtali on the heights of the field. \* 19 Kings came, they fought; then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo. Plunder of silver they did not take. 20 From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. \* 21 The wadi of Kishon swept them away, the wadi of antiquity, the wadi of Kishon. March on, my soul, {in} strength! 22 Then the hooves of a horse beat, from the galloping, the galloping of his mighty {ones}. \* 23 ‘Curse Meroz!’ said the angel of God. ‘Cursing, you shall curse the dwellers of it, because they did not come to the aid of God, to the aid of God against the warriors.’ \* 24 Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, is blessed from women, from women in the tent she is blessed. 25 Water he requested, milk she gave; in a bowl of nobles she brought curdled milk. \* 26 They reached out, her hand to the peg and her right hand to a hammer of workmen. And she struck Sisera, she crushed his head, and she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 Between her feet, he bowed, he fell, he lay down. Between her feet he bowed, he fell. At where he bowed, there he fell, destroyed. \* 28 Through the window she looked and wailed, the mother of Sisera, through the lattice, ‘Why has his chariot delayed to come? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?’ \* 29 The wise of her princesses answered, she also returned her answer to herself: 30 ‘Are they not finding, {are} they {not} dividing spoil, a maiden, two maidens to the head of a warrior, spoil of dyed fabrics for Sisera, spoil of dyed fabrics {and} embroidery, dyed fabric {and} two embroideries for the necks of the spoil?’ \* 31 So may all of your enemies perish, God! But {may} the lovers of him {be} like the going forth of the sun in its strength.” Then the land rested 40 years. \*