1On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang, saying:
2When leaders lead in Israel, when the people offer themselves freely— bless Yahweh!
3Hear, O kings! Give ear, O rulers! I—to Yahweh, I myself will sing; I will make music to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
4Yahweh, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, yes, the clouds dripped water.
5The mountains flowed down before Yahweh, this Sinai, before Yahweh, the God of Israel.
6In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways ceased, and those who walked the paths went by crooked roads.
7Village life ceased in Israel—it ceased—until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.
8They chose new gods; then war was at the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?
9My heart is with the commanders of Israel, those who offered themselves freely among the people—bless Yahweh!
10You who ride on tawny donkeys, you who sit on saddle-blankets, and you who walk along the road—consider!
11At the sound of the archers among the watering troughs, there they recount the righteous acts of Yahweh, the righteous acts of his leadership in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
12Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and take captive your captives, son of Abinoam!
13Then a remnant went down to the nobles; the people of Yahweh went down for me against the mighty.
14From Ephraim came those whose root is in Amalek; after you, Benjamin, with your peoples; from Machir commanders went down, and from Zebulun those who bear the staff of the scribe.
15And my princes in Issachar were with Deborah; and Issachar, so was Barak—into the valley he was sent at his feet. Among the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
16Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, listening to the pipings for the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
17Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan—why did he linger by the ships? Asher sat by the shore of the seas, dwelling by his harbors.
18Zebulun was a people who scorned their life to the death, and Naphtali on the heights of the field.
19Kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; no plunder of silver did they take.
20From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21The wadi Kishon swept them away, the ancient wadi, the wadi Kishon. March on, my soul, in strength!
22Then the hooves of horses hammered—the galloping, galloping of his mighty steeds.
23“Curse Meroz,” said the angel of Yahweh, “utterly curse its inhabitants, because they did not come to the help of Yahweh, to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.”
24Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; of women in the tent may she be most blessed.
25Water he asked; milk she gave; in a lordly bowl she brought curds.
26Her hand she reached out to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; she struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced through his temple.
27Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—destroyed.
28Through the window she looked out and wailed—the mother of Sisera—through the lattice: “Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?”
29The wisest of her princesses answer her; indeed she returns her own words to herself:
30“Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?—a girl or two for each man; spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed, embroidered cloth, two embroidered pieces for the necks of the plunderers.”
31So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh; but may those who love him be like the sun when it rises in its strength. And the land had rest for forty years.
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