Judges 3; Judges 4; Judges 5

1 So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan.

2 He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before.

3 Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass.

4 They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

6 They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.

7 The people of Israel forgot the Lord their God; they sinned against him and worshiped the idols of Baal and Asherah.

8 So the Lord became angry with Israel and let King Cushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia conquer them. They were subject to him for eight years.

9 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz.

10 The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel's leader. Othniel went to war, and the Lord gave him the victory over the king of Mesopotamia.

11 There was peace in the land for forty years, and then Othniel died.

12 The people of Israel sinned against the Lord again. Because of this the Lord made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel.

13 Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and captured Jericho, the city of palm trees.

14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.

15 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man, who was the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to King Eglon of Moab with gifts for him.

16 Ehud had made himself a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long. He had it fastened on his right side under his clothes.

17 Then he took the gifts to Eglon, who was a very fat man.

18 When Ehud had given him the gifts, he told the men who had carried them to go back home.

19 But Ehud himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, went back to Eglon, and said, "Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you." So the king ordered his servants, "Leave us alone!" And they all went out.

20 Then, as the king was sitting there alone in his cool room on the roof, Ehud went over to him and said, "I have a message from God for you." The king stood up.

21 With his left hand Ehud took the sword from his right side and plunged it into the king's belly.

22 The whole sword went in, handle and all, and the fat covered it up. Ehud did not pull it out of the king's belly, and it stuck out behind, between his legs.

23 Then Ehud went outside, closed the doors behind him, locked them,

24 and left. The servants came and saw that the doors were locked, but they only thought that the king was inside, relieving himself.

25 They waited as long as they thought they should, but when he still did not open the door, they took the key and opened it. And there was their master, lying dead on the floor.

26 Ehud got away while they were waiting. He went past the carved stones and escaped to Seirah.

27 When he arrived there in the hill country of Ephraim, he blew a trumpet to call the people of Israel to battle; then he led them down from the hills.

28 He told them, "Follow me! The Lord has given you victory over your enemies, the Moabites." So they followed Ehud down and captured the place where the Moabites were to cross the Jordan; they did not allow anyone to cross.

29 That day they killed about ten thousand of the best Moabite soldiers; none of them escaped.

30 That day the Israelites defeated Moab, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.

31 The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

1 After Ehud died, the people of Israel sinned against the Lord again.

2 So the Lord let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles.

3 Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help.

4 Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet, and she was serving as a judge for the Israelites at that time.

5 She would sit under a certain palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would go there for her decisions.

6 One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam from the city of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The Lord, the God of Israel, has given you this command: "Take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor.

7 I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.' "

8 Then Barak replied, "I will go if you go with me, but if you don't go with me, I won't go either."

9 She answered, "All right, I will go with you, but you won't get any credit for the victory, because the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah set off for Kedesh with Barak.

10 Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him.

11 In the meantime Heber the Kenite had set up his tent close to Kedesh near the oak tree at Zaanannim. He had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses.

12 When Sisera learned that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor,

13 he called out his nine hundred iron chariots and all his men, and sent them from Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles to the Kishon River.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! The Lord is leading you! Today he has given you victory over Sisera." So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men.

15 When Barak attacked with his army, the Lord threw Sisera into confusion together with all his chariots and men. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

16 Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles, and Sisera's whole army was killed. Not a man was left.

17 Sisera ran away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because King Jabin of Hazor was at peace with Heber's family.

18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come in, sir; come into my tent. Don't be afraid." So he went in, and she hid him behind a curtain.

19 He said to her, "Please give me a drink of water; I'm thirsty." She opened a leather bag of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again.

20 Then he told her, "Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no."

21 Sisera was so tired that he fell sound asleep. Then Jael took a hammer and a tent peg, quietly went up to him, and killed him by driving the peg right through the side of his head and into the ground.

22 When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.

23 That day God gave the Israelites victory over Jabin, the Canaanite king.

24 They pressed harder and harder against him until they destroyed him.

1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

2 Praise the Lord! The Israelites were determined to fight; the people gladly volunteered.

3 Listen, you kings! Pay attention, you rulers! I will sing and play music to Israel's God, the Lord.

4 Lord, when you left the mountains of Seir, when you came out of the region of Edom, the earth shook, and rain fell from the sky. Yes, water poured down from the clouds.

5 The mountains quaked before the Lord of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans no longer went through the land, and travelers used the back roads.

7 The towns of Israel stood abandoned, Deborah; they stood empty until you came, came like a mother for Israel.

8 Then there was war in the land when the Israelites chose new gods. Of the forty thousand men in Israel, did anyone carry shield or spear?

9 My heart is with the commanders of Israel, with the people who gladly volunteered. Praise the Lord!

10 Tell of it, you that ride on white donkeys, sitting on saddles, and you that must walk wherever you go.

11 Listen! The noisy crowds around the wells are telling of the Lord's victories, the victories of Israel's people! Then the Lord's people marched down from their cities.

12 Lead on, Deborah, lead on! Lead on! Sing a song! Lead on! Forward, Barak son of Abinoam, lead your captives away!

13 Then the faithful ones came down to their leaders; the Lord's people came to him ready to fight.

14 They came from Ephraim into the valley, behind the tribe of Benjamin and its people. The commanders came down from Machir, the officers down from Zebulun.

15 The leaders of Issachar came with Deborah; yes, Issachar came and Barak too, and they followed him into the valley. But the tribe of Reuben was divided; they could not decide to come.

16 Why did they stay behind with the sheep? To listen to shepherds calling the flocks? Yes, the tribe of Reuben was divided; they could not decide to come.

17 The tribe of Gad stayed east of the Jordan, and the tribe of Dan remained by the ships. The tribe of Asher stayed by the seacoast; they remained along the shore.

18 But the people of Zebulun and Naphtali risked their lives on the battlefield.

19 At Taanach, by the stream of Megiddo, the kings came and fought; the kings of Canaan fought, but they took no silver away.

20 The stars fought from the sky; as they moved across the sky, they fought against Sisera.

21 A flood in the Kishon swept them away - the onrushing Kishon River. I shall march, march on, with strength!

22 Then the horses came galloping on, stamping the ground with their hoofs.

23 "Put a curse on Meroz," says the angel of the Lord, "a curse, a curse on those who live there. They did not come to help the Lord, come as soldiers to fight for him."

24 The most fortunate of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite - the most fortunate of women who live in tents.

25 Sisera asked for water, but she gave him milk; she brought him cream in a beautiful bowl.

26 She took a tent peg in one hand, a worker's hammer in the other; she struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she pierced him through the head.

27 He sank to his knees, fell down and lay still at her feet. At her feet he sank to his knees and fell; he fell to the ground, dead.

28 Sisera's mother looked out of the window; she gazed from behind the lattice. "Why is his chariot so late in coming?" she asked. "Why are his horses so slow to return?"

29 Her wisest friends answered her, and she told herself over and over,

30 "They are only finding things to capture and divide, a woman or two for every soldier, rich cloth for Sisera, embroidered pieces for the neck of the queen."

31 So may all your enemies die like that, O Lord, but may your friends shine like the rising sun! And there was peace in the land for forty years.