The Song of Deborah and Barak

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

2Praise you the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

3Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

4LORD, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

5The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

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

7The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

8They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

9My heart is toward the rulers of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless you the LORD.

10Speak, you that ride on white donkeys, you that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.

11They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

12Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead your captives captive, you son of Abinoam.

13Then he made him that remains have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.

14Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your people; out of Machir came down rulers, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.

15And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great resolves of heart.

16Why abode you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

17Gilead abode beyond the Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode by his inlets.

18Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.

19The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

20They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

21The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, you have trodden down strength.

22Then were the horses' hoofs thundering by means of the gallopings, the gallopings of their mighty ones.

23Curse you Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, Curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

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

25He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she struck Sisera, she crushed his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

27At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

28The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

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

30Have they not sped? have they not divided the spoil; to every man a young woman or two; to Sisera a spoil of many colors, a spoil of many colors of needlework, of many colors of needlework on both sides, suitable for the necks of them that take the spoil?

31So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when it goes forth in its might. And the land had rest forty years.