Judges 4

4 ¹ Again the Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of our Father, now that Ehud was dead. ² So our Father sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. ³ Then the Israelites cried out to our Father, for Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots, and he had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. ⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ She would sit under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. ⁶ She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "Has not our Father, the God of Israel, commanded you: Go, march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the people of Naphtali and Zebulun." ⁷ "And I will draw out Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to meet you at the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand."

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

⁹ "I will surely go with you," she said, "but the road you are taking will bring you no glory, for our Father will hand Sisera over into the hand of a woman." So Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men marched up behind him; and Deborah went up with him. ¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, near Kedesh. ¹² When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³ Sisera summoned all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the troops with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, "Up! For this is the day our Father has given Sisera into your hand. Has not our Father gone out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. ¹⁵ And our Father routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army by the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not one man was left.

The Father Gives Sisera to Jael

¹⁷ Meanwhile Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not be afraid." So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

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

²⁰ Then he said to her, "Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, 'Is there a man here?' say, 'No.'"

²¹ But Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, crept up to him softly, and drove the peg through his temple, down into the ground, while he lay fast asleep and exhausted. So he died. ²² Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "and I will show you the man you are looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera, dead, with the tent peg through his temple. ²³ On that day our Father subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. ²⁴ And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan, until they destroyed him.