Judges 4

¹ When Ehud died, once again the Israelites began to do what displeases Yahweh,

² and Yahweh handed them over to Jabin the king of Canaan who reigned at Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goum.

³ Then the Israelites cried to Yahweh; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots plated with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴ At this time Deborah was judge in Israel, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth.

⁵ She used to sit under Deborah’s Palm between Ramah and Bethel in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her to have their disputes decided.

⁶ She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, ‘This is the order of Yahweh, the God of Israel: “March to Mount Tabor and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and the sons of Zebulun.

⁷ I will entice Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, to encounter you at the wadi Kishon with his chariots and troops; and I will put him into your power.”‘

⁸ Barak answered her, ‘If you come with me, I will go; if you will not come, I will not go, for I do not know how to choose the day when the angel of Yahweh will grant me success’.

⁹ ‘I will go with you then,’ she said ‘but, the way you are going about it, the glory will not be yours; for Yahweh will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.’ Then Deborah stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh,

¹⁰ and there Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men marched behind him, and Deborah marched with him.

¹¹ Heber the Kenite had cut himself off from the tribe of Kain and the clan of the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses; he had pitched his tent near the Oak of Zaanannim, not far from Kedesh.

¹² When Sisera heard that Barak son of Abinoam was encamped on Mount Tabor,

¹³ he called for all his chariots – nine hundred chariots plated with iron – and all the troops he had. He summoned them from Harosheth-ha-goum to the wadi Kishon.

¹⁴ Deborah said to Barak, ‘Up! For today is the day Yahweh has put Sisera into your power. Yes, Yahweh marches at your head.’ And Barak charged down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.

¹⁵ At Barak’s advance, Yahweh struck terror into Sisera, all his chariots and all his troops. Sisera leapt down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-goum. Sisera’s whole army fell by the edge of the sword; not one man escaped.

¹⁷ Sisera meanwhile fled on foot towards the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, ‘My lord, stay here with me; do not be afraid!’ He stayed there in her tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹ He said to her, ‘Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty’. She opened the skin that had milk in it, gave him some to drink and covered him up again.

²⁰ Then he said to her, ‘Stand at the tent door, and if anyone comes and questions you – if he asks, “Is there a man here?”, say, “No”.’

²¹ But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent-peg, and picked up a mallet; she crept up softly to him and drove the peg into his temple right through to the ground. He was lying fast asleep, worn out; and so he died.

²² And now Barak came up in pursuit of Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said, ‘Come in, and I will show you the man you are looking for’. He went into her tent; Sisera lay dead, with the tent-peg through his temple.

²³ Thus God that day humbled Jabin the king of Canaan before the Israelites.

²⁴ And the Israelites bore down more and more heavily on Jabin the king of Canaan, until he was utterly destroyed.