1: Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam
on that day, saying,
2: Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of
Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
3: Hear, O ye
kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing
praise to the LORD God of Israel.
4: LORD, when thou wentest out of
Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the
heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
5: The mountains
melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.
6: In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the
highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
7: The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel,
until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
8: They
chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen
among forty thousand in Israel?
9: My heart is toward the governors
of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the
LORD.
10: Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in
judgment, and walk by the way.
11: They 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.
12: Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak,
and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
13: Then he made
him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made
me have dominion over the mighty.
14: Out of Ephraim was there a root
of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir
came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15: And 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 thoughts of heart.
16: Why abodest thou among the
sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
17: Gilead abode beyond Jordan:
and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in
his breaches.
18: Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded
their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.
19: The
kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters
of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.
20: They fought from heaven;
the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
21: The river of
Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou
hast trodden down strength.
22: Then were the horsehoofs broken by
the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
23:
Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants
thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD
against the mighty.
24: Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of
Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25: He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter
in a lordly dish.
26: She put her hand to the nail, and her right
hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote
off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.
27: At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed,
he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28: The 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?
29: Her wise
ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,
30: Have
they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to
Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of
divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take
the spoil?
31: So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them
that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had
rest forty years.