1 On that day Deborah sang, with Barak son of Abinoam, and said:
2 "For the leaders who led in Israel, for the people who gave themselves freely, bless the LORD!
3 Listen, you kings! Pay attention, you princes! I, to the LORD I will sing, I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.
4 LORD, when you came out from Seir, when you strode from the fields of Edom, the earth shook, the skies poured, yes, the clouds poured down water.
5 The mountains flowed before the LORD, that Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads were empty, and those who traveled kept to crooked byways.
7 Village life came to a halt in Israel, it came to a halt, till I, Deborah, rose up, rose up as a mother in Israel.
8 New gods were chosen; then war was at the gates. Was a shield to be seen, or a spear, among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is with Israel's commanders, who gave themselves freely among the people. Bless the LORD!
10 You who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on fine rugs, you who walk on the road, tell of it!
11 Louder than the archers' voices at the places where water is drawn, there they recount the LORD's righteous deeds, the righteous deeds of his villagers in Israel. Then the LORD's people went down to the gates.
12 Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, sing a song! Rise, Barak, and take your captives captive, son of Abinoam!
13 Then down came a remnant against the nobles of the people; the people of the LORD came down for me against the mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim came those rooted in Amalek; behind you, Benjamin, among your kinsfolk. Out of Machir came down commanders, and out of Zebulun those who wield the scribe's staff.
15 Issachar's princes were with Deborah; as Issachar was, so was Barak, sent into the valley on his heels. Among the divisions of Reuben were great resolves of heart.
16 Why did you stay among the sheepfolds, listening to the whistling for the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben were great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead kept to his place across the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay on with the ships? Asher remained by the seashore and kept to his harbors.
18 Zebulun is a people that scorned its life even to death, and Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.
19 Kings came, they fought; then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach beside the waters of Megiddo; not a piece of silver did they carry off.
20 From the heavens the stars fought; from their paths they fought against Sisera.
21 The Kishon River swept them off, that age-old river, the Kishon River. Tread on with strength, my soul!
22 Then the horses' hoofs pounded, from the galloping, galloping of his mighty ones.
23 'Curse Meroz,' says the angel of the LORD, 'curse, curse its inhabitants, since they did not come to the aid of the LORD, to the aid of the LORD among the mighty.'
24 Blessed above women is Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; above women in the tent may she be blessed.
25 Water he asked; milk she gave; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curds.
26 Her hand she put out to the peg, her right hand to the laborer's mallet; she hammered Sisera, she smashed his head, she split and pierced through his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank down, he fell, he lay; between her feet he sank down, he fell; where he sank down, there he fell, destroyed.
28 Out of the window she peered and wailed, Sisera's mother, out through the lattice: 'Why is his chariot taking so long to come? Why are the hoofbeats of his chariots so late?'
29 The wise women among her ladies answer her; she too repeats her own words to herself:
30 'Surely they are finding the spoil and sharing it out: a womb, two wombs for every man; spoil of dyed garments for Sisera, spoil of dyed garments embroidered, a dyed piece, two embroidered pieces, for the necks of the plunderer.'
31 Thus let all your enemies perish, LORD! But let those who love him be like the rising of the sun in its might." And the land was at rest for forty years.