Judges 5

¹ On that day Deborah (and Barak, son of Abinoam,) sang this song:

² Of chiefs who took the lead in Israel, of noble deeds by the people who bless the LORD,

³ Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!

⁴ O LORD, when you went out from Seir,

⁵ Mountains trembled

⁶ In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,

⁷ Gone was freedom beyond the walls,

⁸ New gods were their choice; then the war was at their gates. Not a shield could be seen, nor a lance, among forty thousand in Israel!

⁹ My heart is with the leaders of Israel,

¹⁰ They who ride on white asses,

¹¹ Sing of them to the strains of the harpers at the wells,

¹² Awake, awake, Deborah!

¹³ Then down came the fugitives with the mighty,

¹⁴ From Ephraim, princes were in the valley;

¹⁵ With Deborah were the princes of Issachar;

¹⁶ Why do you stay beside your hearths

¹⁷ Gilead, beyond the Jordan, rests;

¹⁸ Zebulun is the people defying death;

¹⁹ The kings came and fought;

²⁰ From the heavens the stars, too, fought;

²¹ The Wadi Kishon swept them away;

²² Then the hoofs of the horses pounded,

²³ "Curse Meroz," says the LORD,

²⁴ Blessed among women be Jael,

²⁵ He asked for water, she gave him milk;

²⁶ With her left hand she reached for the peg,

²⁷ At her feet he sank down, fell, lay still;

²⁸ From the window peered down and wailed

²⁹ The wisest of her princesses answers her,

³⁰ "They must be dividing the spoil they took:

³¹ May all your enemies perish thus, O LORD!