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Judges 5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Judges 5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Song of Deborah
5 Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day,(A)
3 Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;
to the Lord I will sing;
I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.(C)
4 Lord, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled,
and the heavens poured;
the clouds indeed poured water.(D)
5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
before the Lord, the God of Israel.(E)
6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, caravans ceased,
and travelers kept to the byways.(F)
7 The peasantry prospered in Israel;
they grew fat on plunder,
because[b] you arose, Deborah,
arose as a mother in Israel.
8 When new gods were chosen,
then war was in the gates.
Was shield or spear to be seen
among forty thousand in Israel?(G)
9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel
who offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless the Lord.
10 Sing of it, you who ride on white donkeys,
you who sit on rich carpets,[c]
and you who walk by the way.
11 To the sound of musicians[d] at the watering places,
there they repeat the triumphs of the Lord,
the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel.
Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord.(H)
12 Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, utter a song!
Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,
O son of Abinoam.(I)
13 Then down marched the remnant of the nobles;
the people of the Lord marched down for him[e] against the mighty.
14 From Ephraim they set out[f] into the valley,[g]
following you, Benjamin, with your kin;
from Machir marched down the commanders,
and from Zebulun those who bear the marshal’s staff;(J)
15 the chiefs of Issachar came with Deborah,
and Issachar faithful to Barak;
into the valley they rushed out at his heels.
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.(K)
16 Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds,
to hear the piping for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.(L)
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan,
and Dan, why did he abide with the ships?
Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,
settling down by his landings.(M)
18 Zebulun is a people that scorned death;
Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.(N)
19 The kings came; they fought;
then fought the kings of Canaan,
at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
they got no spoils of silver.(O)
20 The stars fought from heaven;
from their courses they fought against Sisera.(P)
21 The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with might!(Q)
22 Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs
with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
23 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.
24 Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.(R)
25 Water he asked, milk she gave;
she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.(S)
26 She put her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workers’ mallet;
she struck Sisera a blow;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.(T)
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell,
he lay still;
between her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell dead.
28 Out of the window she peered;
the mother of Sisera gazed[h] through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’(U)
29 Her wisest ladies make answer;
indeed, she answers the question herself:
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?
A woman or two for every man;
spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,
spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,
two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?’(V)
31 So perish all your enemies, O Lord!
But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.”
And the land had rest forty years.(W)
The Midianite Oppression
6 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.(X) 2 The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.(Y) 4 They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, nor any sheep or ox or donkey.(Z) 5 For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted, so they wasted the land as they came in.(AA) 6 Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.(AB)
[[7 When the Israelites cried to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery,(AC) 9 and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land,(AD) 10 and I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.’ But you have not given heed to my voice.”[i]]]
The Call of Gideon
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.(AE) 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.”(AF) 13 Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian.”(AG) 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.”(AH) 15 He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”(AI) 16 The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”(AJ) 17 Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.(AK) 18 Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.(AL) 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour out the broth.” And he did so.(AM) 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.(AN) 22 Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”(AO) 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is peace.” To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father and cut down the sacred pole[j] that is beside it(AP) 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order;[k] then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the sacred pole[l] that you cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, but because he was too afraid of his family and the townspeople to do it by day, he did it by night.
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
28 When the townspeople rose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the sacred pole[m] beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.(AQ) 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this?” After searching and inquiring, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” 30 Then the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pole[n] beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon[o] was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he pulled down his altar.(AR)
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.(AS) 34 But the spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.(AT) 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they, too, were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
36 Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.”(AU) 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”(AV) 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
Footnotes
- 5.2 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 5.7 Or ceased in Israel, ceased until
- 5.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 5.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 5.13 Gk mss: Heb me
- 5.14 Cn: Heb From Ephraim their root
- 5.14 Gk: Heb in Amalek
- 5.28 Gk Compare Tg: Heb exclaimed
- 6.10 Q ms lacks 6.7–10
- 6.25 Or Asherah
- 6.26 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 6.26 Or Asherah
- 6.28 Or Asherah
- 6.30 Or Asherah
- 6.32 Heb he
Judges 5-6
New International Version
Judges 5-6
New International Version
The Song of Deborah
5 On that day Deborah(A) and Barak son of Abinoam(B) sang this song:(C)
2 “When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer(D) themselves—
praise the Lord!(E)
3 “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I, even I, will sing to[a] the Lord;(F)
I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.(G)
4 “When you, Lord, went out(H) from Seir,(I)
when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook,(J) the heavens poured,
the clouds poured down water.(K)
5 The mountains quaked(L) before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
before the Lord, the God of Israel.
6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,(M)
in the days of Jael,(N) the highways(O) were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.(P)
7 Villagers in Israel would not fight;
they held back until I, Deborah,(Q) arose,
until I arose, a mother in Israel.
8 God chose new leaders(R)
when war came to the city gates,(S)
but not a shield or spear(T) was seen
among forty thousand in Israel.
9 My heart is with Israel’s princes,
with the willing volunteers(U) among the people.
Praise the Lord!
10 “You who ride on white donkeys,(V)
sitting on your saddle blankets,
and you who walk along the road,
consider 11 the voice of the singers[b] at the watering places.
They recite the victories(W) of the Lord,
the victories of his villagers in Israel.
“Then the people of the Lord
went down to the city gates.(X)
12 ‘Wake up,(Y) wake up, Deborah!(Z)
Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, Barak!(AA)
Take captive your captives,(AB) son of Abinoam.’
13 “The remnant of the nobles came down;
the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
14 Some came from Ephraim,(AC) whose roots were in Amalek;(AD)
Benjamin(AE) was with the people who followed you.
From Makir(AF) captains came down,
from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s[c] staff.
15 The princes of Issachar(AG) were with Deborah;(AH)
yes, Issachar was with Barak,(AI)
sent under his command into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
16 Why did you stay among the sheep pens[d](AJ)
to hear the whistling for the flocks?(AK)
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
17 Gilead(AL) stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher(AM) remained on the coast(AN)
and stayed in his coves.
18 The people of Zebulun(AO) risked their very lives;
so did Naphtali(AP) on the terraced fields.(AQ)
19 “Kings came(AR), they fought,
the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo,(AS)
they took no plunder of silver.(AT)
20 From the heavens(AU) the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21 The river Kishon(AV) swept them away,
the age-old river, the river Kishon.
March on, my soul; be strong!(AW)
22 Then thundered the horses’ hooves—
galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.(AX)
23 ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord.
‘Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
to help the Lord against the mighty.’
24 “Most blessed of women(AY) be Jael,(AZ)
the wife of Heber the Kenite,(BA)
most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk;(BB)
in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
26 Her hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.(BC)
27 At her feet he sank,
he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell—dead(BD).
28 “Through the window(BE) peered Sisera’s mother;
behind the lattice she cried out,(BF)
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:(BG)
a woman or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments(BH) for my neck—
all this as plunder?(BI)’
31 “So may all your enemies perish,(BJ) Lord!
But may all who love you be like the sun(BK)
when it rises in its strength.”(BL)
Then the land had peace(BM) forty years.
Gideon
6 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,(BN) and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.(BO) 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive,(BP) the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves(BQ) and strongholds.(BR) 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites(BS) and other eastern peoples(BT) invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops(BU) all the way to Gaza(BV) and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.(BW) It was impossible to count them or their camels;(BX) they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out(BY) to the Lord for help.
7 When the Israelites cried out(BZ) to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet,(CA) who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt,(CB) out of the land of slavery.(CC) 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors;(CD) I drove them out before you and gave you their land.(CE) 10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship(CF) the gods of the Amorites,(CG) in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
11 The angel of the Lord(CH) came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah(CI) that belonged to Joash(CJ) the Abiezrite,(CK) where his son Gideon(CL) was threshing(CM) wheat in a winepress(CN) to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you,(CO) mighty warrior.(CP)”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders(CQ) that our ancestors told(CR) us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned(CS) us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have(CT) and save(CU) Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan(CV) is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.(CW)”
16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you(CX), and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign(CY) that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat,(CZ) and from an ephah[e](DA) of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.(DB)
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock,(DC) and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread(DD) with the tip of the staff(DE) that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized(DF) that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”(DG)
23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid.(DH) You are not going to die.”(DI)
24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called(DJ) it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah(DK) of the Abiezrites.
25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.[f] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole[g](DL) beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of[h] altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second[i] bull as a burnt offering.(DM)”
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
28 In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar,(DN) demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!
29 They asked each other, “Who did this?”
When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash(DO) did it.”
30 The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar(DP) and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”
31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause?(DQ) Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” 32 So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal[j](DR) that day, saying, “Let Baal contend with him.”
33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites(DS) and other eastern peoples(DT) joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.(DU) 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on(DV) Gideon, and he blew a trumpet,(DW) summoning the Abiezrites(DX) to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher,(DY) Zebulun and Naphtali,(DZ) so that they too went up to meet them.(EA)
36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save(EB) Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece(EC) on the threshing floor.(ED) If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know(EE) that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.(EF) Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.(EG)
Footnotes
- Judges 5:3 Or of
- Judges 5:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Judges 5:14 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Judges 5:16 Or the campfires; or the saddlebags
- Judges 6:19 That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms
- Judges 6:25 Or Take a full-grown, mature bull from your father’s herd
- Judges 6:25 That is, a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah; also in verses 26, 28 and 30
- Judges 6:26 Or build with layers of stone an
- Judges 6:26 Or full-grown; also in verse 28
- Judges 6:32 Jerub-Baal probably means let Baal contend.
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