Judges 4

1The sons of Israel again did evil in the eyes of Yahweh when Ehud was dead.

2Yahweh sold them into the power of Jabin, king of Canaan who ruled in Hazor; Sisera commanded his army, and he lived in Harosheth of the Nations.

3The Israelites cried out to Yahweh because he had nine hundred iron chariots and crushed the Israelites severely for twenty years.

4Deborah, a prophetess, Lappidoth's wife, she judged Israel at that time.

5She dwelt under Deborah's palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment.

6She sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh of Naphtali, and said to him, "Hasn't Yahweh God of Israel commanded, 'Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun'?"

7I will draw Sisera, captain of Jabin's army, to you at the Kishon River, with his chariots and multitude, and I will deliver him into your hand.

8Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go."

9She said, "I will go with you, but glory will not come to you from the road you travel, for Yahweh will deliver Sisera into a woman's hand." Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

10Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh and went up with ten thousand men on foot, and Deborah went up with him.

11Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab, Moses' father-in-law, and pitched his tent as far as the oak of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.

12They reported to Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had ascended Mount Tabor.

13Sisera mustered all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Nations to the Kishon River.

14Deborah said to Barak, "Arise, for this is the day Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand—hasn't Yahweh gone out before you?" Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.

15Yahweh routed Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; Sisera dismounted from his chariot and fled on foot.

16Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth of the Nations, and all Sisera's army fell by the edge of the sword—not one remained.

17Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

18Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear." He turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with the mantle.

19He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I thirst." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.

20He said to her, “Stand at the tent entrance, and if a man comes and asks you and says, ‘Is there a man here?’ you say, ‘No.’”

21Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent pin and put the hammer in her hand; she drew near to him quietly, drove the pin into his temple, and sank it into the ground—for he lay sound asleep, had grown weary, and died.

22Look, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man you seek." He came to her, and look, Sisera lay dead, the tent peg in his temple.

23On that day God humbled Jabin, king of Canaan, before the sons of Israel.

24The hand of the sons of Israel advanced, going harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.