The Song of Deborah and Barak

5 And Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day:

• 2 when the people willingly offer themselves,
  • bless Yahweh!
• 3  I will sing to Yahweh;
• I will sing praise to Yahweh,
  • the God of Israel.
• 4  when you marched from the region of Edom,
• the earth trembled, the heavens poured down,
  • the clouds poured down water.
  • 5 [fn] before Yahweh, this Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
  • 6  in the days of Jael, the caravans had ceased,
  • [fn][fn]
  • 7 [fn] ceased; they failed to appear in Israel,
• until I,[fn] Deborah, arose;
  • I[fn] arose as a mother in Israel.
  • 8 leaders,[fn]then war was at the gates;
• a small shield or a spear was not seen
  • among forty thousand in Israel.
  • 9 goes out to the commanders of Israel, those offering themselves willingly among the people;
    • bless Yahweh!
  • 10  those sitting on saddle blankets,
    • and those going on the way, talk about it!
    • 11 those dividing[fn]the sheep among the watering places,
  • there they will recount the righteous deeds of Yahweh,
  • the righteous deeds for his warriors[fn] in Israel.
• Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
  • 12  Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
• Get up, Barak!
  • Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.
  • 13 the remnant went down to the nobles; the people of Yahweh went down for him[fn] against the mighty.
  • 14 is their root into Amalek, after you, Benjamin, with your family;
• from Makir the commanders went down,
  • and from Zebulun those carrying the scepter
    • of the military commander.
  • 15 [fn] in Issachar were with Deborah; and Issachar likewise was with Barak;
  • into the valley[fn]
• Among the clans of Reuben
  • were great[fn]
  • 16  to hear the calling sounds of the herds?
• For the clans of Reuben,
  • there were great searchings of the heart.
  • 17 [fn] beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner with ships?
• Asher sat at the coast of the waters,
  • and by his coves he has been settling down.
  • 18 is a people who scorned death, and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
  • 19  then the kings of Canaan fought;
• at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,
  • they got no plunder in silver.
  • 20  from their courses they fought against Sisera.
  • 21 [fn] torrent of Kishon swept them away, the raging wadi torrent,
    • the wadi torrent of Kishon.
  • March on, my soul, with strength!
  • 22  because of galloping, galloping of his stallions.
  • 23  ‘curse bitterly its inhabitants,
• because they did not come to the help of Yahweh,
  • to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.’
  • 24  the wife of Heber the Kenite;
    • most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.
  • 25 and she gave milk; in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.
  • 26  and her right hand for the workman’s hammer;
• and she struck Sisera, crushed his head,
  • and she shattered and pierced his temple.
  • 27  Between her feet he sank down, he fell;
    • Where he sank down, there he fell—[fn]
  • 28  the mother of Sisera cried out through the lattice,
• ‘Why is his chariot delayed in coming?
  • Why do the hoof beats[fn] of his chariot tarry?’
  • 29  she also answers the question herself:
  • 30 [fn]
• colorful garments for Sisera,
  • plunder of colorful garments,[fn]
• beautifully finished colorful garments,
  • on the neck of the plunderer?’
• 31  but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest.”

And the land had rest for forty years.