Judges 4 

Judges 4:1 The Israelites added to the wrong they did in the eyes of Yahveh after Ehud had died.

Judges 4:2 So Yahveh sold them to King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Nations.

Judges 4:3 Then the Israelites cried out to Yahveh, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he harshly oppressed them twenty years.

Judges 4:4 Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

Judges 4:5 She would sit under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go up to her to settle disputes.

Judges 4:6 She called on Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Hasn’t Yahveh, the God of Israel, commanded you: ‘Go, deploy the troops on Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the Naphtalites and Zebulunites?

Judges 4:7 Then I will lure Sisera commander of Jabin’s army, his chariots, and his infantry at the Wadi Kishon to fight against you, and I will hand him over to you.'”

Judges 4:8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

Judges 4:9 “I will gladly go with you,” she said, “but you will receive no honor on the road you are about to take, because Yahveh will sell Sisera to a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Judges 4:10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to arms at Kedesh; ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

Judges 4:11 Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the sons of Hobab, Moses’s father-in-law, and pitched his tent beside the oak tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

Judges 4:12 It was reported to Sisera that Barak, son of Abinoam, had gone up Mount Tabor.

Judges 4:13 Sisera called to arms all his nine hundred iron chariots and all the troops who were with him from Harosheth of the Nations to the Wadi Kishon.

Judges 4:14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day Yahveh has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn’t Yahveh gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Judges 4:15 Yahveh threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into confusion before Barak’s assault. Sisera left his chariot and fled on foot.

Judges 4:16 Barak chased the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth of the Nations, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a single man was left.

Judges 4:17 Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

Judges 4:18 Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

Judges 4:19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

Judges 4:20 Then he said to her, “Stand at the entrance to the tent. If a man comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here? ‘ say, ‘No.'”

Judges 4:21 While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She hammered the peg into his temple and drove it into the ground, and he died.

Judges 4:22 When Barak arrived chasing after Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he went in with her and noticed Sisera lying dead with a tent peg through his temple!

Judges 4:23 That day, God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites.

Judges 4:24 The Israelites’ power continued to increase against King Jabin of Canaan until they cut him down.

Judges 4 quotes:

“The action in Judges 4 focuses on a battle between Deborah and Barak’s forces and the army of Jabin of Canaan. The battle, in turn, frames an exquisite cameo concerning the assassination of the Canaanite general Sisera by a woman, Jael, a tale told a second time in the following chapter. The tale of Jael partakes of the traditional motif of the “iron fist in the velvet glove” and subversively echoes and reverses similar encounters between vulnerable men and strong, resourceful women in the Hebrew Bible. The attitudes of “us versus them,” the equation between battle and sex, and gender-related themes are all at play in this passage.”

Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 64.

Judges 4 links:

courageous women
Gender Equality in Ministry
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 2, 2019
she fights

The JUDGES shelf in Jeff’s library