4 After Ehud died, the Israelis again started doing things considered evil by Yahweh, 2 so he handed them over to King Yabin of Canaan who reigned in Hatsor. Sisera was the commander of his army, and he lived in Haroshet-Haggoyim. 3 The Israelis cried out to Yahweh because Sisera had nine hundred chariots with iron on them, and he cruelly oppressed them for twenty years.

4 Now the prophetess Deborah (Lappidot’s wife) was leading Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the palm tree between Ramah and Bethel (in the Efraimite hill country), and people would come to her to have their disputes settled. 6 One day she summoned Barak (Abinoam’s son from Kedesh in Naftali) and told him, “Israel’s God, Yahweh commands you to draft ten thousand men from Naftali and Zebulun and assemble at Mt. Tabor. 7 Yahweh will lure King Yabin’s army commander, Sisera bring his warriors and chariots to the Kishon river, and Yahweh will enable you to defeat them there.”

8 “I’ll go if you’ll come with me,” replied Barak, “but if you won’t come with me, I won’t go.”

9 “I’ll certainly go with you,” she said, “but it won’t be you that’s honoured afterwards, but rather Yahweh will use a woman to defeat Sisera.” So Deborah accompanied Barak to Kedesh. 10 There he summoned warriors from Zebulun and Naftali and ten thousand men came, and they all went together with Deborah to Mt. Tabor.

11 Now Heber had moved with his wife Yael and their family away from the other Kenites (and from Mosheh’s father-in-law Hobab’s descendants) and set up his tent by the oak tree at Zaanannim near Kedesh.

12 When Sisera was told that Barak (Abinoam’s son) had gone to Mt. Tabor, 13 he assembled his warriors and their nine hundred chariots (with iron on them) and went from Haroshet-Haggoyim to the Kishon riverbed.

14 “Get going,” Deborah told Barak, “because it’s today that Yahweh has gone ahead of you and will help you defeat Sisera.” So Barak led his ten thousand warriors down from Mt. Tabor. 15 Then Yahweh caused Sisera and all his warriors and chariots to be confused as Barak advanced, so Sisera jumped down from his chariot and took off on foot. 16 Barak pursued the men and chariots as far as Haroshet-Haggoyim and they killed them all—not a single one survived.

17 But Sisera had fled on foot and ran to Yael’s tent (Heber the Kenite’s wife) because there was peace between King Yabin of Hatsor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 Yael went out to meet Sisera and told him, “Stop and rest, my master. Stop and rest here. Don’t be afraid.” So he turned and went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Could you get me a little water to drink.” Yael opened a goatskin container and gave him milk to drink, then she covered him again. 20 “Stand at the tent doorway,” he said, “and if anyone comes and asks you if you’ve seen a man, say, ‘No.’ ”

21 Then Heber’s wife Yael got a hammer and a tent peg and crept in silently, driving the peg through his temple and pounding it into the ground,. He’d been tired and was sleeping soundly, and it killed him. 22 Meanwhile Barak had been searching for Sisera, and Yael went out to meet him. “Come in here,” she told him, “and I’ll show you the man you’ve been searching for.” He followed her into the tent and wow—Sisera was lying there dead with the peg still through his temple.

23 So that day God defeated Canaanite King Yabin’s army in front of the Israelis, 24 and as they became stronger against him, they destroyed King Yabin of Canaan.