Judges 4
New American Standard Bible
Deborah and Barak
4 Then (A)the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hand of (B)Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in (C)Harosheth-hagoyim. 3 The sons of Israel cried out to the Lord; for he had nine hundred (D)iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years.
4 Now Deborah, a [a]prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She used to [b]sit under the (E)palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went up to her for judgment. 6 Now she sent word and summoned (F)Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “[c]The Lord, the God of Israel, has indeed commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. 7 I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his [d]many troops to the river Kishon, and (G)I will hand him over to you.’” 8 Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 She said, “I will certainly go with you; however, the fame shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, (H)for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak summoned (I)Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up [e](J)with him; Deborah also went up with him.
11 Now Heber (K)the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the [f]father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the [g]oak in (L)Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12 Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 Sisera summoned all his chariots, (M)nine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from (N)Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day on which the Lord has handed Sisera over to you; [h]behold, (O)the Lord has gone out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 (P)And the Lord [i]routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; (Q)not even one was left.
17 Now Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a [j]rug. 19 (R)And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a leather bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’” 21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, (S)took a tent peg and [k]a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. 22 And behold, while Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he entered [l]with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.
23 So (T)God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan on that day before the sons of Israel. 24 And the hand of the sons of Israel pressed harder and harder upon Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had eliminated Jabin the king of Canaan.
Footnotes
- Judges 4:4 Lit woman prophetess
- Judges 4:5 Or live
- Judges 4:6 Lit Has the Lord not commanded...?
- Judges 4:7 Lit multitude
- Judges 4:10 Lit at his feet
- Judges 4:11 Another reading is brother-in-law
- Judges 4:11 Or terebinth
- Judges 4:14 Lit has the Lord not gone...?
- Judges 4:15 Lit confused
- Judges 4:18 Or blanket
- Judges 4:21 Lit put a hammer
- Judges 4:22 Lit to
Judges 4
Living Bible
4 After Ehud’s death the people of Israel again sinned against the Lord, 2-3 so the Lord let them be conquered by King Jabin of Hazor, in Canaan. The commander-in-chief of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoiim. He had nine hundred iron chariots and made life unbearable for the Israelis for twenty years. But finally they begged the Lord for help.
4 Israel’s leader at that time, the one who was responsible for bringing the people back to God, was Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. 5 She held court at a place now called “Deborah’s Palm Tree,” between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came to her to decide their disputes.[a]
6 One day she summoned Barak (son of Abinoam), who lived in Kedesh, in the land of Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord God of Israel has commanded you to mobilize ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. Lead them to Mount Tabor 7 to fight King Jabin’s mighty army with all his chariots, under General Sisera’s command. The Lord says, ‘I will draw them to the Kishon River, and you will defeat them there.’”
8 “I’ll go, but only if you go with me!” Barak told her.
9 “All right,” she replied, “I’ll go with you; but I’m warning you now that the honor of conquering Sisera will go to a woman instead of to you!” So she went with him to Kedesh.
10 When Barak summoned the men of Zebulun and Naphtali to mobilize at Kedesh, ten thousand men volunteered. And Deborah marched with them. 11 (Heber, the Kenite—the Kenites were the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law Hobab—had moved away from the rest of his clan, and had been living in various places as far away as the Oak of Zaanannim, near Kedesh.) 12 When General Sisera was told that Barak and his army were camped at Mount Tabor, 13 he mobilized his entire army, including the nine hundred iron chariots, and marched from Harosheth-hagoiim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Now is the time for action! The Lord leads on! He has already delivered Sisera into your hand!”
So Barak led his ten thousand men down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle.
15 Then the Lord threw the enemy into a panic, both the soldiers and the charioteers, and Sisera leaped from his chariot and escaped on foot. 16 Barak and his men chased the enemy and the chariots as far as Harosheth-hagoiim, until all of Sisera’s army was destroyed; not one man was left alive. 17 Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was a mutual-assistance agreement between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come into my tent, sir. You will be safe here in our protection. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 “Please give me some water,” he said, “for I am very thirsty.” So she gave him some milk and covered him again.
20 “Stand in the door of the tent,” he told her, “and if anyone comes by, looking for me, tell them that no one is here.”
21 Then Jael took a sharp tent peg and a hammer and, quietly creeping up to him as he slept, she drove the peg through his temples and into the ground; and so he died, for he was fast asleep from weariness.
22 When Barak came by looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.”
So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying there dead, with the tent peg through his temples. 23 So that day the Lord used Israel to subdue King Jabin of Canaan. 24 And from that time on Israel became stronger and stronger against King Jabin, until he and all his people were destroyed.
Footnotes
- Judges 4:5 to decide their disputes, or “to listen to her speak to them about God.”
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.