Judges 5

Judges 5:1 On that day, Deborah (and Barak, son of Abinoam) sang:

Judges 5:2 When the leaders lead in Israel, when the people volunteer,[1] bless[2] Yahveh.

Judges 5:3 Listen, kings! Pay attention, princes! I will sing to Yahveh; I will sing praise to Yahveh God of Israel.

Judges 5:4 Yahveh, when you came from Seir, when you marched from the fields of Edom, the land trembled, the skies poured rain, and the clouds poured water.

Judges 5:5 The mountains melted before Yahveh, even Sinai, before Yahveh, the God of Israel.

Judges 5:6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the main roads were deserted because travelers kept to the side roads.

Judges 5:7 Villages were deserted in Israel until I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.

Judges 5:8 Israel tried out[3] new gods, then there was war in the city gates. Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

Judges 5:9 My heart is with the leaders of Israel, with the volunteers of the people. Blessed be Yahveh!

Judges 5:10 You who ride on white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, and who travel on the road, give praise!

Judges 5:11 Let them tell the righteous acts of Yahveh, the righteous deeds of his warriors in Israel, with the voices of the singers at the watering places. Then Yahveh’s people went down to the city gates.

Judges 5:12 “Wake up! Wake up, Deborah! Wake up! Wake up, sing a song! Get up, Barak, and take your prisoners, son of Abinoam!”

Judges 5:13 Then the survivors came down to the nobles; Yahveh’s people came down to me with the warriors.

Judges 5:14 Those with their roots in Amalek came from Ephraim; Benjamin came with your people after you. The leaders came down from Machir, and those who carry a marshal’s staff came from Zebulun.

Judges 5:15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; Issachar was with Barak; they were under his leadership in the valley. There was great searching of heart among the clans of Reuben.

Judges 5:16 Why did you sit among the sheep pens listening to the playing of pipes for the flocks? There was great searching of heart among the clans of Reuben.

Judges 5:17 Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. Dan, why did you stay rowing the ships? Asher remained at the seashore and stayed in his harbors.

Judges 5:18 The people of Zebulun didn’t care about their throats, even if they died. Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

Judges 5:19 Kings came and fought. Then, the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo, but they did not plunder the silver.

Judges 5:20 The stars fought from the sky; the stars fought with Sisera from their paths.

Judges 5:21 The river Kishon swept them away, the ancient river, the river Kishon. March on, my throat, in strength!

Judges 5:22 The horses’ hooves then hammered – the galloping, galloping of his stallions.

Judges 5:23 “Curse Meroz,” says the agent of Yahveh, “Bitterly curse her inhabitants, because they did not come to help Yahveh, to help Yahveh with the warriors.”

Judges 5:24 Jael is the most empowered of women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; she is most empowered among tent-dwelling women.

Judges 5:25 He asked for water; she gave him milk. She brought him cream in a majestic bowl.

Judges 5:26 She reached for a tent peg, her right hand, for a workman’s hammer. Then she hammered Sisera – she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.

Judges 5:27 He collapsed, he fell, he lay down between her feet; he collapsed, he fell between her feet; where he collapsed, there he fell – dead.

Judges 5:28 Sisera’s mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice, crying out: “Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why don’t I hear the hoof-beats of his horses?”

Judges 5:29 Her wisest princesses answer her; she even answers herself:

Judges 5:30 “They must be finding and dividing the loot – a girl or two for each warrior, the loot of colored garments for Sisera, the spoil of an embroidered garment or two for my neck?”

Judges 5:31 Yahveh, may all your enemies perish like Sisera did. But may those who love him be like the rising of the sun in its strength. And the land had peace for forty years.

[1] נָדָב = volunteer. Judges 5:2, 9.

[2] בָּרָךְ = bless (of God), empower (from God). Judges 5:2, 9, 24; 13:24; 17:2.

[3] בחר = try out, tested. Judges 5:8; 10:14; 20:15, 16, 34.

Judges 5 quotes:

“A beautiful and moving example of the traditional type of the woman’s victory song, the “Song of Deborah” may be one of the most ancient works of the Hebrew Bible. As in Exodus 15, the divine warrior displays his military power and prowess on behalf of the people Israel; but in contrast to that victory song, here human heroes play an even greater role on their own behalf, as divine intervention alternates with human initiative. Central in the victory are women warriors: Deborah the poet-prophet, charismatic leader, and “mother in Israel”; Jael, a guerrilla warrior and archetypal seducer-killer who exemplifies the folk motif of the iron first in the velvet glove. The author, whether male or female, assumes the voice and perspective of a woman, visualizing not only female Israelite victors but also the women of the Canaanite enemy, waiting for their heroes to return from battle, successful.”

Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 76.