THE BOOK OF JUDGES

 

Judges Chapter 4

1 ¶ But when Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.

2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

3 And the children of Israel cried to the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and severely oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.

4 ¶ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel at that time.

5 And she sat under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

6 And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedeshnaphtali, and said to him, Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and deploy the troops on mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and the children of Zebulun?

7 Then I will draw Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his army; and I will deliver him into your hand.

8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.

9 And she said, I will surely go with you: nevertheless the journey that you take will not bring you honor; for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

10 ¶ And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men following him: and Deborah went up with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite, who was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had moved away from the Kenites, and pitched his tent as far as the oak of Zaanaim, which is near Kedesh.

12 And they informed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to mount Tabor.

13 And Sisera gathered together all nine hundred of his iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles to the river of Kishon.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, Go; for this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand: has not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.

15 And the LORD threw Sisera, and all his chariots, and his entire army into confusion before Barak, with the edge of the sword; so that Sisera got down from his chariot, and fled on foot.

16 But Barak pursued the chariots, and the host, as far as Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; and there was not a man left.

17 ¶ However Sisera 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.

18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Come in, my lord, come in to me; do not be afraid. And after he had gone into her tent, she covered him with a blanket.

19 And he said to her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and let him drink, and covered him.

20 Again he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is there any man here? you say, No.

21 Then Jael Heber’s wife took a tent peg, and went to him quietly with a hammer in her hand, and drove the peg into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

22 And as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. And when he went into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the peg went through his temples.

23 So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

24 And the power of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed him.