The Holy Bible: Revised Common Version

2  "Praise the LORD for the avenging of Israel/
when the people willingly offered themselves.

3  "Hear, O kings. Give ear, O princes./
I, even I, will sing to the LORD./
I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

4  "LORD, when you went out of Seir,/
when you marched out of the field of Edom,/
the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,/
the clouds also dropped water.

5  The mountains melted from before the LORD,/
even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

6  "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,/
in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,/
and the travelers walked through by-ways.

7  The inhabitants of the villages ceased,/
they ceased in Israel/
until I, Deborah, arose,/
until I arose a mother in Israel.

8  They chose new gods,/
then war was in the gates./
Was there a shield or spear seen/
among forty thousand in Israel?

9  My heart is toward the governors of Israel/
who offered themselves willingly among the people./
Bless the LORD.

10 "Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,/
you who sit in judgment and walk by the way.

11 Those who are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water,/
there they shall rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD,/
even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel./
Then the people of the LORD shall go down to the gates.

12 "Awake, awake, Deborah./
Awake, awake, utter a song./
Arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, son of Abinoam.

13 Then he made him who remains have dominion over the nobles among the people./
The LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.

14 Out of Ephraim there was a root of them against Amalek./
After you was Benjamin among your people./
Out of Machir governors came down,/
and out of Zebulun those who handle the pen of the writer.

15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah,/
even Issachar, and also Barak./
He was sent on foot into the valley./
For the divisions of Reuben/
there were great thoughts of heart.

16 Why did you abide among the sheep-folds/
to hear the bleatings of the flocks?/
For the divisions of Reuben/
there were great searchings of heart.

17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan./
And why did Dan remain in ships?/
Asher continued on the sea-shore/
and stayed in his breaches.

18 Zebulun was a people who jeopardized their lives to death,/
and Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.

19 "The kings came and fought,/
then the kings of Canaan fought/
in Tanach by the waters of Megiddo./
They took no gain of money.

20 They fought from heaven./
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

21 The river of Kishon swept them away,/
that ancient river, the Kishon River./
O my soul, you have trodden down strength.

22 "Then the horse's hooves were broken/
by the means of the prancings,/
the prancings of their mighty ones.

23 "'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the LORD,/
'bitterly curse its inhabitants,/
because they did not come to the help of the LORD,/
to the help of the LORD against the mighty.'

24 "Blessed above women Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite shall be,/
blessed she shall be above women in the tent.

25 He asked water, and she gave him milk./
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26 She put her hand to the nail/
and her right hand to the workmen's hammer./
And with the hammer she smote Sisera,/
she smote off his head/
when she had pierced and struck through his temples.

27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down./
At her feet he bowed, he fell./
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

28 "The mother of Sisera looked out of a window/
and cried through the lattice,/
'Why is his chariot so long in coming?/
Why do the wheels of his chariots delay?'

29 Her wise ladies answered her,/
and she returned answer to herself.

30 'Have they not found, have they not divided the plunder:/
to every man a woman or two,/
to Sisera plunder of diverse colors,/
plunder of diverse colors of needle-work,/
of diverse colors of needle-work on both sides,/
suitable for the necks of those who take the plunder?'

31 "So let all your enemies perish, O LORD./
But let those who love him be as the sun/
when he goes forth in his might."