And Deborah sang, with Barak the son of Abinoam, on that day, saying:
“When locks go loose in Israel, when the people offer themselves willingly — bless the LORD!
Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers. I — to the LORD, I will sing; I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.
LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked; the heavens also dripped; the clouds also dripped water.
The mountains flowed away before the LORD — this Sinai — before the LORD, the God of Israel.
In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads ceased; and those who walked the paths went by winding roads.
The villagers ceased in Israel — they ceased, until I arose, Deborah; I arose, a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods; then war was at the gates. Was shield seen, or spear, among forty thousand in Israel?
My heart is with the commanders of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the LORD!
You who ride white donkeys, you who sit on saddle blankets, and you who walk on the way — tell of it!
At the voice of those dividing the flocks between the watering places, there they recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of his villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates.
Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, speak a song! Rise, Barak, and lead away your captives, son of Abinoam.
Then the survivor went down to the nobles; the people of the LORD went down for me against the mighty.
From Ephraim came those whose root is in Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. From Machir commanders went down, and from Zebulun those who carry the staff of the muster-scribe.
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah — and Issachar, so Barak; into the valley he was sent at his feet. Among the divisions of Reuben, great were the resolves of heart.
Why did you sit between the sheepfolds, listening to the pipings for the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben, great were the searchings of heart.
Gilead stayed across the Jordan; and Dan — why did he linger by the ships? Asher sat at the shore of the seas, and by his landings he stayed.
Zebulun is a people that scorned its life to the death — and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
Kings came; they fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo. Plunder of silver they did not take.
From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought with Sisera.
The Brook of Kishon swept them away — the ancient brook, the Brook of Kishon. March on, my soul, in strength!
Then the hooves of the horses hammered, from the galloping, the galloping of his stallions.
‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD; ‘curse bitterly its inhabitants — because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.’
Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; of women in the tent, most blessed.
Water he asked; milk she gave; in a bowl of nobles she brought near curds.
Her hand she stretched out to the peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and she hammered Sisera — she crushed his head, and she shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay; between her feet he sank, he fell. Where he sank, there he fell — destroyed.
Through the window she looked out and wailed — the mother of Sisera, through the lattice: ‘Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?’
The wisest of her princesses answer her — indeed, she returns her own words to herself:
‘Are they not finding, dividing spoil? — a womb, two wombs, for the head of each man; spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloth, embroidered — dyed cloth doubly embroidered for the necks of the spoilers.’
So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But those who love him are like the going out of the sun in its strength.” And the land had rest forty years.
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