¹Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,

• ²“Because the leaders took the lead in Israel,
• because the people offered themselves willingly,

• be blessed, Yahweh!

• ³“Hear, you kings!
• Give ear, you princes!

• I, even I, will sing to Yahweh.
• I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

• ⁴“Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir,
• when you marched out of the field of Edom,

• the earth trembled, the sky also dropped.
• Yes, the clouds dropped water.

• ⁵The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh,
• even Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

• ⁶“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
• in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied.
• The travelers walked through byways.

• ⁷The rulers ceased in Israel.
• They ceased until I, Deborah, arose;
• Until I arose a mother in Israel.

• ⁸They chose new gods.
• Then war was in the gates.
• Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

• ⁹My heart is toward the governors of Israel,
• who offered themselves willingly among the people.
• Bless Yahweh!

• ¹⁰“Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,
• you who sit on rich carpets,
• and you who walk by the way.

• ¹¹Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water,
• there they will rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh,
• the righteous acts of his rule in Israel.

• “Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
• ¹²‘Awake, awake, Deborah!
• Awake, awake, utter a song!
• Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.’

• ¹³“Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down.
• Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.

• ¹⁴Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim,
• after you, Benjamin, among your peoples.

• Governors come down out of Machir.
• Those who handle the marshal’s staff came out of Zebulun.

• ¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah.
• As was Issachar, so was Barak.
• They rushed into the valley at his feet.

• By the watercourses of Reuben,
• there were great resolves of heart.

• ¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
• To hear the whistling for the flocks?

• At the watercourses of Reuben
• There were great searchings of heart.

• ¹⁷Gilead lived beyond the Jordan.
• Why did Dan remain in ships?
• Asher sat still at the haven of the sea,
• and lived by his creeks.

• ¹⁸Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the deaths;
• Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.

• ¹⁹“The kings came and fought,
• then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo.
• They took no plunder of silver.

• ²⁰From the sky the stars fought.
• From their courses, they fought against Sisera.

• ²¹The river Kishon swept them away,
• that ancient river, the river Kishon.
• My soul, march on with strength.

• ²²Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings,
• the prancings of their strong ones.

• ²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of Yahweh.
• ‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants,
• because they didn’t come to help Yahweh,
• to help Yahweh against the mighty.’

• ²⁴“Jael shall be blessed above women,
• the wife of Heber the Kenite;
• blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

• ²⁵He asked for water.
• She gave him milk.
• She brought him butter in a lordly dish.

• ²⁶She put her hand to the tent peg,
• and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer.

• With the hammer she struck Sisera.
• She struck through his head.
• Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.

• ²⁷At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay.
• At her feet he bowed, he fell.
• Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

• ²⁸“Through the window she looked out, and cried:
• Sisera’s mother looked through the lattice.

• ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
• Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?’

• ²⁹Her wise ladies answered her,
• Yes, she returned answer to herself,

• ³⁰‘Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil?
• A lady, two ladies to every man;

• to Sisera a spoil of dyed garments,
• a spoil of dyed garments embroidered,
• of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?’

• ³¹“So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh,
• but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength.”

Then the land had rest forty years.