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ULT JDG Chapter 4

4 Then the sons of Israel resumed once again to do this evil in the eyes of Yahweh, after Ehud died. 2 So Yahweh handed them over into the hand of Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Now the commander of his army was Sisera, and he was residing in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Then the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, because he had nine hundred chariots of iron and he oppressed the sons of Israel with severe might twenty years.

4 Now Deborah was a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. She was judging Israel at that time. 5 She would sit beneath the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came up to her for justice. 6 She sent and called for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh Naphtali. She said to him, “Has Yahweh, the God of Israel, not commanded: ‘Go and draft at Mount Tabor, and you shall take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun’? 7 ‘I will draw out Sisera, the commander of the army of Jabin, to you along the Kishon River, and his chariot and his multitude, and I will give him into your hand’.” 8 Barak replied to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 She declared, “I will indeed go with you, for naught, since it will not be your honor on the way which you are going, but with a hand of a woman Yahweh will give over Sisera.” Then Deborah rose up and she went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Then Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. He went up, ten thousand men were at his feet, and Deborah went up with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from Cain, from the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. He pitched his tent as far as an oak tree in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

12 When they reported to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera summoned all of his chariotry, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all of the people who were with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River. 14 Then Deborah directed to Barak, “Arise! For this day when Yahweh has given Sisera into your hand, has not Yahweh gone forth before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor along with ten thousand men beside him. 15 Yahweh dismayed Sisera and all of the chariotry and all of the army with an edge of a sword before Barak. So Sisera dismounted from atop the chariot and fled away on his feet. 16 But Barak pursued after the chariotry and after the army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and the entire army of Sisera fell by an edge of a sword, not even one remained.

17 However Sisera had fled on his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and she said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me. Do not fear.” So he turned to her, into the tent, and she concealed him with the coverlet. 19 He requested of her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened the leather bag of milk and gave him drink, and then she covered him. 20 Then he directed her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent. It shall be if anyone should come and ask you and say, ‘Is there anyone here?’, then you shall say ‘There is not’.” 21 Then Jael, the wife of Heber, took the peg of the tent and she put the hammer in her hand. She came to him in the silence, and she drove the peg into his temple and pounded down to the ground. For he had been soundly sleeping and weary, instead he died. 22 Then, behold, Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him and she said to him, “Come, and let me show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he came to her, and behold, Sisera had fallen dead, and the peg was in his temple.

23 So on that day God vanquished Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the sons of Israel. 24 Thus the hand of the sons of Israel had gone on becoming increasingly severe against Jabin, the king of Canaan, up to the point that they had destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan.

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