Judges
4
- After Ehud died, the Israelites once again
did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
- So the LORD sold them into the hands of
Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was
Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
- Because he had nine hundred iron chariots
and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the
LORD for help.
- Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth,
was leading Israel at that time.
- She held court under the Palm of Deborah
between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites
came to her to have their disputes decided.
- She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh
in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you:
'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way
to Mount Tabor.
- I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's
army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into
your hands.'"
- Barak said to her, "If you go with
me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."
- "Very well," Deborah said, "I
will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor
will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So
Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,
- where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali.
Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
- Now Heber the Kenite had left the other
Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his
tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
- When they told Sisera that Barak son of
Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
- Sisera gathered together his nine hundred
iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon
River.
- Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This
is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone
ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand
men.
- At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera
and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot
and fled on foot.
- But Barak pursued the chariots and army
as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword;
not a man was left.
- Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent
of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations
between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
- Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to
him, "Come, my lord, come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered
her tent, and she put a covering over him.
- "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please
give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and
covered him up.
- "Stand in the doorway of the tent,"
he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say
'No.'"
- But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent
peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted.
She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
- Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and
Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you
the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera
with the tent peg through his temple -- dead.
- On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite
king, before the Israelites.
- And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger
and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.
Back |
Home |
Next