Judges / Deborah and Barak's Victory Over Sisera

Deborah and Barak's Victory Over Sisera

Judges 4:1-24

Chapter 4

¹ And the sons of Israel continued to do evil in the eyes of the LORD after Ehud died. ² The LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, and the commander of his army was Sisera, and he was dwelling in Harosheth of the Nations. ³ The sons of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of his nine hundred chariots of iron, and he oppressed the sons of Israel with strength twenty years. ⁴ Deborah, a woman, a prophet, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ And she was sitting under Tamar Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel went up to her for judgment. ⁶ And she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh of Naphtali, and she said to him, "Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded you? Go toward Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun." ⁷ And I will draw Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude, to you at the Wadi Kishon, and I will give him into your hand. ⁸ And Barak said to Deborah, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go." ⁹ And she said, "Go, I will go with you; nevertheless, your glory will not be on the way that you are going, for into the hand of a woman the LORD will sell Sisera." And Deborah arose and went with Barak to the Divine sanctification. ¹⁰ And Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up on foot with him. Deborah also went up with him. ¹¹ Heber the Kenite had separated from Ken, from the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and pitched his tent as far as the oak tree of Bezenim, which is at Kadesh. ¹² They told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up Mount Tabor. ¹³ Sisera cried out for all his chariots—nine hundred chariots of iron—and all the people who were with him, from the plain of the nations to the wadi Kishon. ¹⁴ Deborah said to Barak, "Rise, for this is the day that the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?" Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men after him. ¹⁵ And the LORD threw Sisera and all the chariots and all the camp into confusion by the edge of the sword before Barak, and Sisera went down from the chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶ And Barak pursued after the chariots and after the camp as far as Harosheth of the Nations, and all the camp of Sisera fell by the mouth of the sword; not one was left. ¹⁷ And Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Heber the Kenite's wife, for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ And Yael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear." And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a blanket. ¹⁹ And he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." And she opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. ²⁰ And he said to her, "Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if a man comes and asks you, saying, 'Is there a man here?' then you will say, 'No.'" ²¹ And Jael, wife of Heber, took the tent peg and the hammer in her hand and came to him stealthily and drove the peg into his temple and it sank into the earth, for he was asleep and weary, and he died. ²² Look, Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Go, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." And he came to her, and look, Sisera lay fallen dead, with the peg in his temple. ²³ God subdued Jabin king of Canaan on that day before the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And the hand of the sons of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.