1 Once Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the LORD's sight.
2 The LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned at Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, and he lived at Harosheth-hagoyim.
3 The children of Israel cried to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots and for twenty years had oppressed the children of Israel cruelly.
4 At that time Deborah, a woman who was a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel.
5 She would sit beneath Deborah's palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went up to her to have their cases decided.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, given this command: 'Go, draw toward Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and the children of Zebulun with you.
7 And I will draw Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to you at the Kishon River with his chariots and his horde, and hand him over to you'?"
8 Barak answered her, "If you will go with me, I will go; if you will not go with me, I will not go."
9 "I will go with you, surely," she said, "only the honor will not be yours on the road you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into a woman's hand." And Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.
11 Heber the Kenite had parted from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab, Moses' father-in-law, and had pitched his tent as far off as the oak at Zaanannim, near Kedesh.
12 Word came to Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.
13 So Sisera summoned all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the troops with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Deborah said to Barak, "Up! This is the day when the LORD has handed Sisera over to you. Has not the LORD gone out ahead of you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, ten thousand men behind him.
15 The LORD routed Sisera, all the chariots and the whole army, with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera climbed down from his chariot and ran away on foot.
16 Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth-hagoyim, and Sisera's whole army fell by the edge of the sword; not even one remained.
17 Sisera, meanwhile, ran on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite were at peace.
18 Jael came out to meet Sisera and told him, "Come in, my lord, come in here to me; do not be afraid." He went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, "Give me a little water to drink, please; I am thirsty." She opened a skin of milk, let him drink, and covered him again.
20 He told her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, 'Is anybody here?' tell him, 'No one.'"
21 But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand, came to him softly, and drove the peg through his temple into the ground, for he was in a deep sleep from weariness; and he died.
22 And there was Barak, chasing Sisera! Jael came out to meet him and told him, "Come, I will show you the man you are after." He went in to her, and there lay Sisera dead, the peg through his temple.
23 So God brought Jabin king of Canaan low that day before the children of Israel.
24 And the hand of the children of Israel weighed more and more heavily on Jabin king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin king of Canaan.