The Song of Deborah and Barak

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

• 2 “When long hair hangs loosely in Israel,
  • when the people willingly offer themselves,
    • bless Yahweh!
• 3 Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
  • I will sing to Yahweh;
  • I will sing praise to Yahweh,
    • the God of Israel.
• 4 Yahweh, when you went down from Seir,
  • when you marched from the region of Edom,
• the earth trembled, the heavens poured down,
  • the clouds poured down water.
• 5 The mountains trembled[fn] before Yahweh,
  • this Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
• 6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
  • in the days of Jael, the caravans had ceased,
  • the travelers ,[fn] they kept to the byways .[fn]
• 7 The warriors[fn] ceased;
  • they failed to appear in Israel,
• until I,[fn] Deborah, arose;
  • I[fn] arose as a mother in Israel.
• 8 God chose new leaders,[fn]
  • then war was at the gates;
• a small shield or a spear was not seen
  • among forty thousand in Israel.
• 9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel,
  • those offering themselves willingly among the people;
    • bless Yahweh!
• 10 The riders of white female donkeys,
  • those sitting on saddle blankets,
    • and those going on the way, talk about it!
• 11 At the sound of 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, Deborah!
  • Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
• Get up, Barak!
  • Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.
• 13 Then the remnant went down to the nobles;
  • the people of Yahweh went down for him[fn] against the mighty.
• 14 From Ephraim 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 And the chiefs[fn] in Issachar were with Deborah;
  • and Issachar likewise was with Barak;
  • into the valley he was sent to get him from behind .[fn]
• Among the clans of Reuben
  • were great decisions of the heart .[fn]
• 16 Why do you sit among the sheepfolds,
  • to hear the calling sounds of the herds?
• For the clans of Reuben,
  • there were great searchings of the heart.
• 17 Gilead has remained[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 Zebulun is a people who scorned death,
  • and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
• 19 “The kings came, they fought;
  • then the kings of Canaan fought;
• at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,
  • they got no plunder in silver.
• 20 The stars fought from heaven;
  • from their courses they fought against Sisera.
• 21 The wadi[fn] torrent of Kishon swept them away,
  • the raging wadi torrent,
    • the wadi torrent of Kishon.
  • March on, my soul, with strength!
• 22 “Then the hooves of the horse beat loudly,
  • because of galloping, galloping of his stallions.
• 23 ‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of Yahweh;
  • ‘curse bitterly its inhabitants,
• because they did not come to the help of Yahweh,
  • to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.’
• 24 “Most blessed of women is Jael,
  • the wife of Heber the Kenite;
    • most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.
• 25 He asked for water, and she gave milk;
  • in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.
• 26 She reached out her hand to the peg,
  • 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, he fell, he lay.
  • Between her feet he sank down, he fell;
    • Where he sank down, there he fell— dead .[fn]
• 28 “Through the window she looked down;
  • 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 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
  • she also answers the question herself:
• 30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the plunder?
  • A bedmate or two bedmates for every man ;[fn]
• colorful garments for Sisera,
  • plunder of colorful garments,[fn]
• beautifully finished colorful garments,
  • on the neck of the plunderer?’
• 31 So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh,
• but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest.”

And the land had rest for forty years.