Judges 5:1-31 CEB

[1] At that time, Deborah and Barak, Abinoam’s son, sang: [2] When hair is long in Israel, when people willingly offer themselves—bless the LORD! [3] Hear, kings! Listen, rulers! I, to the LORD, I will sing. I will make music to the LORD, Israel’s God. [4] LORD, when you set out from Seir, when you marched out from Edom’s fields, the land shook, the sky poured down, the clouds poured down water. [5] The mountains quaked before the LORD, the one from Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel. [6] In the days of Shamgar, Anath’s son, in the days of Jael, caravans ceased. Those traveling by road kept to the backroads. [7] Villagers disappeared; they disappeared in Israel, until you, Deborah, arose, until you arose as a mother in Israel. [8] When they chose new gods, then war came to the city gates. Yet there wasn’t a shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel! [9] My heart is with Israel’s commanders, who willingly offered themselves among the people—bless the LORD! [10] You who ride white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, who walk along the road: tell of it. [11] To the sound of instruments at the watering places, there they repeat the LORD’s victories, his villagers’ victories in Israel. Then the LORD’s people marched down to the city gates. [12] “Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, sing a song! Arise, Barak! Capture your prisoners, Abinoam’s son!” [13] Then those who remained marched down against royalty; the LORD’s people marched down against warriors. [14] From Ephraim they set out into the valley, after you, Benjamin, with your people! From Machir commanders marched down, and from Zebulun those carrying the official’s staff. [15] The leaders of Issachar came along with Deborah; Issachar was attached to Barak, and was sent into the valley behind him. Among the clans of Reuben there was deep soul-searching. [16] “Why did you stay back among the sheep pens, listening to the music for the flocks?” For the clans of Reuben there was deep soul-searching. [17] Gilead stayed on the other side of the Jordan, and Dan, why did he remain with the ships? Asher stayed by the seacoast, camping at his harbors. [18] Zebulun is a people that readily risked death; Naphtali too in the high countryside. [19] Kings came and made war; the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by Megiddo’s waters, but they captured no spoils of silver. [20] The stars fought from the sky; from their orbits they fought against Sisera. [21] The Kishon River swept them away; the advancing river, the Kishon River. March on, my life, with might! [22] Then the horses’ hooves pounded with the galloping, galloping of their stallions. [23] “Curse Meroz,” says the LORD’s messenger, “curse its inhabitants bitterly, because they didn’t come to the LORD’s aid, to the LORD’s aid against the warriors.” [24] May Jael be blessed above all women; may the wife of Heber the Kenite be blessed above all tent-dwelling women. [25] He asked for water, and she provided milk; she presented him cream in a majestic bowl. [26] She reached out her hand for the stake, her strong hand for the worker’s hammer. She struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his skull. [27] At her feet he sank, fell, and lay flat; at her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead. [28] Through the window she watched, Sisera’s mother looked longingly through the lattice. “Why is his chariot taking so long to come? Why are the hoofbeats of his chariot horses delayed?” [29] Her wisest attendants answer; indeed, she replies to herself: [30] “Wouldn’t they be finding and dividing the loot? A girl or two for each warrior; loot of colored cloths for Sisera; loot of colored, embroidered cloths; two colored, embroidered cloths as loot for every neck.” [31] May all your enemies perish like this, LORD! But may your allies be like the sun, rising in its strength. And the land was peaceful for forty years.