Judges 4
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites again did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
2 The LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
3 The Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
5 She used to sit under Deborah’s palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the LORD, the God of Israel, has commanded: ‘Go, march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun.
7 I will draw Sisera, Jabin’s army commander, to you at the Kishon Brook, with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand.’”
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go.”
9 She replied, “I will certainly go with you. But the honor will not be yours on the path you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up behind him, and Deborah went up with him.
11 Heber the Kenite had separated from Cain, from the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He had pitched his tent by the oak at Zaanannim, near Kedesh.
12 Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.
13 Sisera summoned all his chariots—nine hundred iron chariots—and all the troops with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Kishon Brook.
14 Deborah said to Barak, “Get up, for this is the day when the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Is the LORD not going out ahead of you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.
15 The LORD threw Sisera, all his chariots, and his entire army into panic before Barak, at the edge of the sword. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim. Sisera’s entire army fell by the sword; not one was left.
17 Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the household of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord, come in here; don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water, for I am thirsty.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.
20 He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent. If anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ answer, ‘No.’”
21 Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand. She quietly went up to him and drove the peg through his temple into the ground. He was in a deep sleep, exhausted, and he died.
22 Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” He went in, and there lay Sisera, fallen dead, with the peg through his temple.
23 That day God subdued Jabin, king of Canaan, before the Israelites.
24 The Israelites’ hand pressed harder and harder against Jabin, king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan.
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