Chapter 5

  Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,  

-

  Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.  

-

  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.  

-

  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.  

-

  The mountains melted from before the LORD, [even] that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.  

-

  In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.  

-

  [The inhabitants of] the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.  

-

  They chose new gods; then [was] war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?  

-

  My heart [is] toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.  

-

  Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.  

-

  [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.  

-

  Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.  

-

  Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.  

-

  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.  

-

  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.  

-

  Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben [there were] great searchings of heart.  

-

  Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.  

-

  Zebulun and Naphtali [were] a people [that] jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.  

-

  The kings came [and] fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.  

-

  They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.  

-

  The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.  

-

  Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.  

-

  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.  

-

  Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.  

-

  He asked water, [and] she gave [him] milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.  

-

  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.  

-

  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.  

-

  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?  

-

  Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,  

-

  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?  

-

  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.  

-