The Song of Deborah and Barak
The song opens by naming its singers, blessing willing leadership, summoning rulers to listen, and praising the LORD as the one who comes in majesty and shakes the earth.
O1n that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: 2“When the princes take the lead in Israel, 3Listen, O kings! Give ear, O princes! 4O LORD, when You went out from Seir, 5The mountains quaked before the LORD,
The song remembers Israel’s insecurity, empty villages, and disorder under false gods, then turns in gratitude toward those who answered the need and calls the people to recount the LORD’s righteous acts.
6In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, 7Life in the villages ceased; 8When they chose new gods, 9My heart is with the princes of Israel, 10You who ride white donkeys, 11ponder the voices of the singers
Deborah and Barak are summoned to rise, and the tribes are named one by one as some come down to fight while others stay among their own concerns. Zebulun and Naphtali stand out for risking their lives.
12‘Awake, awake, O Deborah! 13Then the survivors came down to the nobles; 14Some came from Ephraim, with their roots in Amalek; 15The princes of Issachar were with Deborah, 16Why did you sit among the sheepfolds 17Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. 18Zebulun was a people who risked their lives;
The kings fight at Taanach, but the battle is shown as larger than human combat, with stars and torrent joining against Sisera. Meroz is then cursed for failing to come to the LORD’s help.
19Kings came and fought; 20From the heavens the stars fought; 21The River Kishon swept them away, 22Then the hooves of horses thundered— 23‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD.
Jael is called blessed above women, and her welcome of Sisera is retold with quiet precision until the tent peg and hammer bring him down at her feet.
24Most blessed among women is Jael, 25He asked for water, and she gave him milk. 26She reached for the tent peg, 27At her feet he collapsed, he fell,
The scene shifts to Sisera’s mother at the window, waiting and explaining the delay with imagined triumph and divided spoil, not knowing her son lies dead.
28Sisera’s mother looked through the window; 29Her wisest ladies answer; 30‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—
The song closes with a prayer that the LORD’s enemies perish and that those who love Him rise in strength like the sun. The land then has rest for forty years.
31So may all Your enemies perish,