The Song of Deborah

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

2‘When locks are long in Israel,

when the people offer themselves willingly—

bless5.2 Or You who offer yourselves willingly among the people, bless the LORD!

3‘Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;

to the LORD I will sing,

I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.

4‘LORD, when you went out from Seir,

when you marched from the region of Edom,

the earth trembled,

and the heavens poured,

the clouds indeed poured water.

5The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai,

before the LORD, the God of Israel.

6‘In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,

in the days of Jael, caravans ceased

and travellers kept to the byways.

7The peasantry prospered in Israel,

they grew fat on plunder,

because you arose, Deborah,

arose as a mother in Israel.

8When new gods were chosen,

then war was in the gates.

Was shield or spear to be seen

among forty thousand in Israel?

9My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel

who offered themselves willingly among the people.

Bless the LORD.

10‘Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,

you who sit on rich carpets,5.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain

and you who walk by the way.

11To the sound of musicians5.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain at the watering-places,

there they repeat the triumphs of the LORD,

the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel.

‘Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.

12‘Awake, awake, Deborah!

Awake, awake, utter a song!

Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,

O son of Abinoam.

13Then down marched the remnant of the noble;

the people of the LORD marched down for him5.13 Gk: Heb me against the mighty.

14From Ephraim they set out5.14 Cn: Heb From Ephraim their root into the valley,5.14 Gk: Heb in Amalek

following you, Benjamin, with your kin;

from Machir marched down the commanders,

and from Zebulun those who bear the marshal's staff;

15the chiefs of Issachar came with Deborah,

and Issachar faithful to Barak;

into the valley they rushed out at his heels.

Among the clans of Reuben

there were great searchings of heart.

16Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds,

to hear the piping for the flocks?

Among the clans of Reuben

there were great searchings of heart.

17Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan;

and Dan, why did he abide with the ships?

Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,

settling down by his landings.

18Zebulun is a people that scorned death;

Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.

19‘The kings came, they fought;

then fought the kings of Canaan,

at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;

they got no spoils of silver.

20The stars fought from heaven,

from their courses they fought against Sisera.

21The torrent Kishon swept them away,

the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.

March on, my soul, with might!

22‘Then loud beat the horses' hoofs

with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.

23‘Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD,

curse bitterly its inhabitants,

because they did not come to the help of the LORD,

to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

24‘Most blessed of women be Jael,

the wife of Heber the Kenite,

of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

25He asked water and she gave him milk,

she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.

26She put her hand to the tent-peg

and her right hand to the workmen's mallet;

she struck Sisera a blow,

she crushed his head,

she shattered and pierced his temple.

27He sank, he fell,

he lay still at her feet;

at her feet he sank, he fell;

where he sank, there he fell dead.

28‘Out of the window she peered,

the mother of Sisera gazed5.28 Gk Compare Tg: Heb exclaimed through the lattice:

“Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?”

29Her wisest ladies make answer,

indeed, she answers the question herself:

30“Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?—

A girl or two for every man;

spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,

spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,

two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?”

31‘So perish all your enemies, O LORD!

But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.’

And the land had rest for forty years.