Shared Word Translation
Judges 5
The Song of Deborah and Barak
On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang:
When leaders let their hair flow in Israel,
when the people freely offer themselves,
bless the LORD!
Hear, O kings!
Give ear, O rulers!
I, to the LORD, I will sing;
I will make music to the LORD,
the God of Israel.
O LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the fields of Edom,
the earth shook,
the heavens also poured,
the clouds poured down water.
The mountains quaked before the LORD,
even Sinai before the LORD,
the God of Israel.
In the Days of Shamgar
In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael,
the highways were abandoned,
and travelers went by crooked paths.
Village life ceased in Israel;
it ceased
until I, Deborah, arose,
until I arose as a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods;
then war was in the gates.
Was a shield seen, or a spear,
among forty thousand in Israel?
My heart is with the commanders of Israel,
with those who freely offered themselves among the people.
Bless the LORD!
You who ride on white donkeys,
you who sit on rich carpets,
and you who walk on the road—
tell of it!
At the sound of those who divide the flocks
among the watering places,
there they recount the righteous acts of the LORD,
the righteous acts of his villagers in Israel.
Then the people of the LORD
went down to the gates.
Awake, Deborah
Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak!
Lead away your captives, son of Abinoam!
Then the survivors came down to the nobles;
the people of the LORD came down for me
against the warriors.
From Ephraim came those whose root was in Amalek;
after you, Benjamin, among your peoples.
From Machir commanders came down,
and from Zebulun those who carry the staff of command.
The princes of Issachar were with Deborah,
and Issachar was faithful to Barak;
into the valley they rushed at his feet.
Among the divisions of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
listening to the piping for the flocks?
Among the divisions of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Gilead remained beyond the Jordan.
And Dan—why did he stay with the ships?
Asher sat at the seashore
and remained by his landings.
Zebulun was a people who risked their lives to death,
and Naphtali also,
on the heights of the field.
The Stars Fought from Heaven
Kings came; they fought.
Then the kings of Canaan fought
at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo.
They took no plunder of silver.
From heaven the stars fought;
from their courses
they fought against Sisera.
The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, in strength!
Then the horses’ hooves hammered
from the galloping,
the galloping of his mighty steeds.
“Curse Meroz,” says the messenger of the LORD.
“Bitterly curse its inhabitants,
because they did not come to the help of the LORD,
to the help of the LORD among the warriors.”
Most Blessed Is Jael
Most blessed among women is Jael,
wife of Heber the Kenite;
most blessed among women in tents.
He asked for water; she gave milk.
In a noble bowl
she brought curds.
She reached her hand to the tent peg,
and her right hand to the workers’ hammer.
She struck Sisera;
she crushed his head.
She shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet he sank,
he fell, he lay still.
Between her feet he sank, he fell.
Where he sank,
there he fell—destroyed.
The Mother of Sisera Waits
Through the window she looked down,
the mother of Sisera cried through the lattice:
“Why is his chariot delayed in coming?
Why are the hoofbeats of his chariots late?”
The wisest of her noble women answer her,
and she repeats their words to herself:
“Are they not finding and dividing plunder?
A woman, two women for each warrior;
plunder of dyed cloth for Sisera,
plunder of embroidered dyed cloth,
two pieces of embroidered cloth
for the neck of the plunderer?”
So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
But may those who love you
be like the sun
when it rises in its strength.
And the land had rest forty years.