| Chapter 5 |
| 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 colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework,
of divers colors 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. |
