when the people willingly offer themselves,

bless Yahweh!

³ Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!

I will sing to Yahweh;

I will sing praise to Yahweh,

the God of Israel.

⁴ Yahweh, when you went down from Seir,

when you marched from the region of Edom,

the earth trembled, the heavens poured down,

the clouds poured down water.

⁵ The mountains trembled^[a] before Yahweh,

this Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁶ “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,

in the days of Jael, the caravans had ceased,

the travelers,^[b] they kept to the byways.^[c]

⁷ The warriors^[d] ceased;

they failed to appear in Israel,

until I,^[e] Deborah, arose;

I^[f] arose as a mother in Israel.

⁸ God chose new leaders,^[g]

then war was at the gates;

a small shield or a spear was not seen

among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹ My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel,

those offering themselves willingly among the people;

bless Yahweh!

¹⁰ The riders of white female donkeys,

those sitting on saddle blankets,

and those going on the way, talk about it!

¹¹ At the sound of those dividing^[h] the sheep

among the watering places,

there they will recount the righteous deeds of Yahweh,

the righteous deeds for his warriors^[i] in Israel.

Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.

¹² “Wake up, wake up, Deborah!

Wake up, wake up, sing a song!

Get up, Barak!

Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.

¹³ Then the remnant went down to the nobles;

the people of Yahweh went down for him^[j] against the mighty.

¹⁴ From Ephraim is their root into Amalek,

after you, Benjamin, with your family;

from Makir the commanders went down,

and from Zebulun those carrying the scepter

of the military commander.

¹⁵ And the chiefs^[k] in Issachar were with Deborah;

and Issachar likewise was with Barak;

into the valley he was sent to get him from behind.^[l]

Among the clans of Reuben

were great decisions of the heart.^[m]

¹⁶ Why do you sit among the sheepfolds,

to hear the calling sounds of the herds?

For the clans of Reuben,

there were great searchings of the heart.

¹⁷ Gilead has remained^[n] beyond the Jordan.

Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner with ships?

Asher sat at the coast of the waters,

and by his coves he has been settling down.

¹⁸ Zebulun is a people who scorned death,

and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.

¹⁹ “The kings came, they fought;

then the kings of Canaan fought;

at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,

they got no plunder in silver.

²⁰ The stars fought from heaven;

from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹ The wadi^[o] torrent of Kishon swept them away,

the raging wadi torrent,

the wadi torrent of Kishon.

March on, my soul, with strength!

²² “Then the hooves of the horse beat loudly,

because of galloping, galloping of his stallions.

²³ ‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of Yahweh;

‘curse bitterly its inhabitants,

because they did not come to the help of Yahweh,

to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.’

²⁴ “Most blessed of women is Jael,

the wife of Heber the Kenite;

most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.

²⁵ He asked for water, and she gave milk;

in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.

²⁶ She reached out her hand to the peg,

and her right hand for the workman’s hammer;

and she struck Sisera, crushed his head,

and she shattered and pierced his temple.

²⁷ Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay.

Between her feet he sank down, he fell;

Where he sank down, there he fell—dead.^[p]

²⁸ “Through the window she looked down;

the mother of Sisera cried out through the lattice,

‘Why is his chariot delayed in coming?

Why do the hoof beats^[q] of his chariot tarry?’

²⁹ The wisest of her ladies answer her;

she also answers the question herself:

³⁰ ‘Are they not finding and dividing the plunder?

A bedmate or two bedmates for every man;^[r]

colorful garments for Sisera,

plunder of colorful garments,^[s]

beautifully finished colorful garments,

on the neck of the plunderer?’

³¹ So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh,

but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest.”

And the land had rest for forty years.

Footnotes

1. Judges 5:5 Or “quaked”
2. Judges 5:6 Literally “the ones walking on the paths”
3. Judges 5:6 Literally “they went on the crooked roads”
4. Judges 5:7 Others interpret this word as referring to the “rural dwellers”
5. Judges 5:7 Or “you”
6. Judges 5:7 Or “you”
7. Judges 5:8 ESV, NRSV translate “when new gods were chosen”
8. Judges 5:11 Meaning uncertain; other translations have “archers” (Tanakh), “musicians” (ESV, NRSV) or “singers” (NIV, HCSB)
9. Judges 5:11 Hebrew “warrior”
10. Judges 5:13 Hebrew “me”
11. Judges 5:15 Hebrew “my chiefs”; ancient translations read “the chiefs”
12. Judges 5:15 Literally “he was sent at his feet”
13. Judges 5:15 Or “thoughts of the heart”
14. Judges 5:17 Or “stayed”
15. Judges 5:21 A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season
16. Judges 5:27 Literally “devastated”
17. Judges 5:28 Or “steps”
18. Judges 5:30 Literally “a womb, two wombs for head of every man”
19. Judges 5:30 Hebrew “garment”