Judges 5  Christian Standard Bible

⁶ In the days of Shamgar^(E) son of Anath,
in the days of Jael,^(F)
the main roads were deserted
because travelers kept to the side roads.
⁷ Villages were deserted,^[c]
they were deserted in Israel,
until I,^[d] Deborah, arose,
a mother in Israel.
⁸ Israel chose new gods,
then there was war in the city gates.
Not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel.
⁹ My heart is with the leaders of Israel,
with the volunteers of the people.
Blessed be the Lord!
¹⁰ You who ride on white^[e] donkeys,
who sit on saddle blankets,
and who travel on the road, give praise!
¹¹ Let them tell the righteous acts^(G) of the Lord,
the righteous deeds of his villagers in Israel,
with the voices of the singers at the watering places.^[f]
Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates.
¹² “Awake! Awake, Deborah!
Awake! Awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak,
and take your prisoners,
son of Abinoam!”
¹³ Then the survivors^(H) came down to the nobles;^(I)
the Lord’s people came down to me^[g] against the warriors.
¹⁴ Those with their roots in Amalek^[h] came from Ephraim;
Benjamin came with your people after you.
The leaders came down from Machir,^(J)
and those who carry a marshal’s staff came from Zebulun.
¹⁵ The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
Issachar was with Barak;
they were under his leadership^[i](K) in the valley.
There was great searching^[j] of heart
among the clans of Reuben.
¹⁶ Why did you sit among the sheep pens^[k]
listening to the playing of pipes for the flocks?
There was great searching of heart
among the clans of Reuben.
¹⁷ Gilead^(L) remained beyond the Jordan.
Dan, why did you linger at the ships?
Asher remained at the seashore
and stayed in his harbors.
¹⁸ The people of Zebulun defied death,
Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

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.
²⁰ The stars fought from the heavens;
the stars fought with Sisera from their paths.
²¹ The river Kishon swept them away,^(M)
the ancient river, the river Kishon.
March on, my soul, in strength!
²² The horses’ hooves then hammered—
the galloping, galloping of his^[l] stallions.
²³ “Curse Meroz,” says the angel of the Lord,
“Bitterly curse her inhabitants,
for they did not come to help the Lord,
to help the Lord with the warriors.”

²⁴ Most blessed of women is Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite;
she is most blessed among tent-dwelling women.
²⁵ He asked for water; she gave him milk.
She brought him cream^(N) in a majestic bowl.
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.
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.

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 hoofbeats of his horses?” ^[m]
29 Her wisest princesses answer her;
she even answers herself:
³⁰ “Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—
a girl or two^[n] for each warrior,
the spoil of colored garments for Sisera,
the spoil of an embroidered garment or two for my neck?” ^[o]

³¹ Lord, may all your enemies perish as Sisera did.^[p]
But may those who love him
be like the rising of the sun in its strength.