Judges 4

After Ehud died, the people of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. The LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. The people of Israel cried out to the LORD, for he had nine hundred iron chariots and had severely oppressed the people of Israel for twenty years. Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. The people of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go, gather at Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. I will draw Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops, to you at the Kishon River, and I will give him into your hand’?” Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go. But if you do not go with me, I will not go.” She said, “I will certainly go with you. But the honor will not be yours on the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up following him, and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He had pitched his tent by the oak at Zaanannim, near Kedesh. They told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera summoned all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the troops with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Kishon River. Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. The LORD routed Sisera, all his chariots, and his whole army before Barak by the edge of the sword. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim. Sisera’s whole army fell by the edge of the sword; not one remained. Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in here. Do not be afraid.” He went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent. If anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’” Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand. She approached him quietly and drove the peg through his temple into the ground. He was sound asleep and exhausted, and he died. As Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” He went in with her, and there was Sisera lying dead, with the peg in his temple. So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the people of Israel. The hand of the people of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

Rights and attribution