Judges
5* And Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoʽam sang on that day
3 Listen, kings; give ear, potentates;
I will sing to Jehovah, I!
I will make music to Israel’s God Jehovah.
4* Jehovah, when you came out from Seʽir,
when you paced forth from the wolds of Edom,
The earth quaked; aye, the heavens tossed;
aye, the clouds dripped water,
5* The mountains streamed at Jehovah’s presence,—
this is Sinai,—
at the presence of Israel’s God Jehovah.
6* In the days of Shamgar the son of ʽAnath,
in the days of Jaʽel, roads ceased
and wayfarers went by devious roads;
then barley bread;
Shield was not to be seen, nor spear,
among forty thousand in Israel.
11* At the sound of archers between the water-holes
there they shall celebrate Jehovah’s loyal work,
his loyal work of prowess in Israel.
Then Jehovah’s people went down to the gates!
12** Arouse, arouse, Deborah; rouse, rouse, chant your song;
up, Barak; take your captives, son of Abinoʽam!
14** Out of Ephraim those whose root is in the vale,
your brother Benjamin among your kinsfolk;
Out of Makir marshals came down,
and out of Zebulun wielders of the mustering-baton.
15** And the chiefs in Issacar were with Deborah,
and Issacar, so Barak;
in the vale they poured along at his back.
At Reuben’s water-channels great were the resolves of minds.
16 Why did you sit in the fork of the paths to hear the
whistles of the flocks?
By Reuben’s water-channels great were the searchings of minds.
17* Gilead was settled on the other side of the Jordan,
and Dan was on foreign ships;
Asher was living by the beach,
settled at its landings.
18 Zebulun was a people that flouted their lives to die,
and Naphtali, on the heights of the range.
19 Kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of the Canaanites
at Taʽanac by the Megiddo Water;
no winnings of silver did they take.
20 The stars fought out of the sky,
out of their orbits they fought with Sisera.
21* The Kishon torrent swept them off,
streaked with their blood was the Kishon torrent,
stout souls were set on their way.
22 Then they pounded the ponies’ heels,
his heroes went galloping, galloping.
23 Curse Meroz, says Jehovah’s Angel,
curse its inhabitants with a downright curse,
Because they did not come to help Jehovah,
to help Jehovah among the champions.
25 Water he asked, milk she has given,
in a noble bowl she has brought clabber.
26 Her hand she puts to the peg,
her right hand to the toilers’ mallet,
And strikes Sisera, smashes his head,
shatters and drives through his temple-bone.
27 Between her legs he plunged, fell, lay;
between her legs he plunged, fell;
where he plunged, there he fell smitten.
28 At the window, at the lattice,
Sisera’s mother stood looking out and talking all the time:
‘Why is it his chariotry is so long in coming?
why is it the hoofbeats of his chariots are so late?’
29 The wisest of her ladies answered her,
she herself echoed back her words,
30* ‘O, they are finding booty, dividing it,
a slave-girl or two per man,
A booty of dyed cloths for Sisera,
a booty of dyed cloths, embroidery,
a dyed cloth, double embroidery, for my neck—booty!’
31 So may all your enemies perish, Jehovah!
and may those who love him be like the rising
of the sun at its brightest!”
And the country was quiet forty years.