JudgesChapter 4

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¹After Ehud died, the Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. ²So the LORD sold them into the power of Jabin king of Canaan. Jabin ruled in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera. Sisera lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. ³Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots. He had been very cruel to the Israelites for twenty years. ⁴At that time Deborah was judging Israel. She was a prophet and the wife of Lappidoth. ⁵She would sit under the Palm Tree of Deborah. It was between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites would go up to her to settle their problems. ⁶She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, is giving you a command. He says, 'Go and march to Mount Tabor. Take ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun with you. ⁷I will draw Sisera out to you at the Kishon River. He is the commander of Jabin's army. I will bring him with his chariots and his troops. And I will hand him over to you.'" ⁸Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go. But if you don't go with me, I won't go." ⁹"I will surely go with you," Deborah answered. "But you will get no honor on the road you are taking, because the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰There Barak called the men of Zebulun and Naphtali together. Ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him too. ¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the other Kenites. They were the descendants of Hobab, Moses' father-in-law. Heber had set up his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, near Kedesh. ¹²Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up Mount Tabor. ¹³So Sisera called out all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all his men. He brought them from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Kishon River. ¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, "Get up! Today the LORD has handed Sisera over to you. The LORD has gone ahead of you, hasn't he?" So Barak came down from Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. ¹⁵As Barak came on, the LORD threw Sisera into a panic. He struck down Sisera's chariot drivers and his whole army with the sword. Sisera got down from his chariot and ran away on foot. ¹⁶Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth-hagoyim. Sisera's whole army was killed by the sword. Not one man was left. ¹⁷Meanwhile, Sisera ran on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. He went there because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera. She said to him, "Come in, my lord. Come in here with me. Don't be afraid." So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. ¹⁹Sisera said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink. I'm thirsty." So she opened a skin bag of milk. She gave him a drink and covered him up again. ²⁰"Stand at the door of the tent," he told her. "Someone may come and ask you, 'Is there a man here?' If they do, say, 'No.'" ²¹But Sisera was worn out and fell fast asleep. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and a hammer. She went quietly to him. She drove the peg through the side of his head and into the ground. And he died. ²²Barak came by, chasing Sisera. Jael went out to meet him. She said, "Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for." So he went in with her. There lay Sisera, dead, with a tent peg through the side of his head. ²³On that day God beat Jabin king of Canaan in front of the Israelites. ²⁴The Israelites pushed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan. At last they destroyed him.