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.
