1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: 2 “When the leaders take the lead in Israel, when the people gladly volunteer for war— we praise Yahweh! 3 Listen, you kings! Pay attention, you leaders! I, I will sing to Yahweh; I will sing praises to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 4 Yahweh, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from Edom, the earth shook, and the skies also trembled; also the clouds poured down water. 5 The mountains quaked before the face of Yahweh; even Mount Sinai quaked before the face of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 6 In the days of Shamgar (son of Anath), in the days of Jael, the main roads were abandoned, and those who walked only used the winding paths. 7 There were few rural people in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose—arose as a mother in Israel! 8 When they chose new gods, there was fighting at the city gates and yet there were no shields or spears seen among forty thousand in Israel. 9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel, along with the people who gladly volunteered— we bless Yahweh for them! 10 Think about this—you who ride on white donkeys sitting on rugs for saddles, and you who walk along the road. 11 Hear the voices of those who sing at the watering places. There they tell again of Yahweh's righteous deeds, and the righteous actions of his warriors in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the city gates. 12 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, sing a song! Get up, Barak, and capture your prisoners, you son of Abinoam. 13 Then the survivors came down to the nobles; the people of Yahweh came down to me with the warriors. 14 They came from Ephraim, whose root is in Amalek; the people of Benjamin followed you. From Machir commanders came down, and from Zebulun those who carry an officer's staff. 15 My princes in Issachar were with Deborah; and Issachar was with Barak rushing after him into the valley under his command. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 16 Why did you sit between the fireplaces, listening to the shepherds playing their pipes for their flocks? As for the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 17 Gilead stayed on the other side of the Jordan; and Dan, why did he wander about on ships? Asher remained on the coast and lived close to his harbors. 18 Zebulun was a tribe who would risk their lives to the point of death, and Naphtali, also, on the field of battle. 19 The kings came, they fought; the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. But they took away no silver as plunder. 20 From heaven the stars fought, from their paths across the heavens they fought against Sisera. 21 The Kishon River swept them away, that old river, the Kishon River. March on my soul, be strong! 22 Then came the sound of horses' hooves— galloping, the galloping of his mighty ones. 23 'Curse Meroz!' says the angel of Yahweh. 'Surely curse its inhabitants!— because they did not come to help Yahweh— to help Yahweh in the battle against the mighty warriors.' 24 Jael is blessed more than all other women, Jael (the wife of Heber the Kenite), she is more blessed than all the women who live in tents. 25 The man asked for water, and she gave him milk; she brought him butter in a dish fit for princes. 26 She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's hammer; with the hammer she struck Sisera, she crushed his head. She smashed his skull into pieces when she pierced him through the side of his head. 27 He collapsed between her feet, he fell and he lay there. Between her feet he fell limp. The place he collapsed is where he was violently killed. 28 Out of a window she looked— the mother of Sisera looked through the lattice and she called out in sadness, 'Why has it taken his chariot so long to come? Why have the hoofbeats of the horses that pull his chariots been delayed?' 29 Her wisest princesses replied, and she gave herself the same answer: 30 'Have they not found and divided up the plunder? —A womb, two wombs for every man; the plunder of dyed fabric for Sisera, the plunder of dyed fabric embroidered, two pieces of dyed fabric embroidered for the necks of those who plunder?' 31 So may all your enemies perish, Yahweh! But your friends be like the sun when it rises in its might.” Then the land had peace for forty years.
Judges · Unlocked Literal Bible
Judges 5 Unlocked Literal Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abinoam
Named as the father of Barak of Kedesh in Naphtali.
Cited in the guide: Judges 4:6; Judges 4:12; Judges 5:1
Anath
Named only as the father of the judge Shamgar.
Cited in the guide: Judges 3:31; Judges 5:6
Barak
Son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali whom Deborah summoned to lead ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun against Sisera, and who sang Deborah's song with her.
Cited in the guide: Judges 4:6; Judges 4:14; Judges 5:1
Deborah
Prophetess and wife of Lappidoth who judged Israel from under the Palm of Deborah in the hill country of Ephraim, summoned Barak to fight Sisera, and sang the victory song with…
Cited in the guide: Judges 4:4; Judges 4:9; Judges 5:1
Heber
Kenite who had separated from the descendants of Hobab, pitched his tent near Kedesh, and was at peace with Jabin king of Hazor, and whose wife Jael killed Sisera.
Cited in the guide: Judges 4:11; Judges 4:17; Judges 5:24
Jael
Wife of Heber the Kenite who gave the fleeing Sisera shelter and killed him with a tent peg, and whom Deborah's song calls most blessed among tent-dwelling women.
Cited in the guide: Judges 4:17; Judges 4:21; Judges 5:6
Shamgar
Son of Anath who saved Israel by striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad, and whose days are recalled in Deborah's song.
Cited in the guide: Judges 3:31; Judges 5:6
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Exodus 15:1; Revelation 15:3–4; Isaiah 12:1–6; Psalm 18:1; Revelation 19:1–3
- 2 Judges 5:9; Psalm 110:3; 2 Chronicles 17:16; Philippians 2:13; Psalm 136:19–20
- 3 Psalm 138:4–5; Psalm 119:46; Psalm 2:10–12; Psalm 49:1–2; Ezra 7:21
- 4 Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 77:17; Psalm 68:7–8; Psalm 18:7–15; Job 9:6
- 5 Exodus 19:18; Psalm 97:5; Nahum 1:5; Isaiah 64:1–3; Hebrews 12:18
- 6 Isaiah 33:8; Judges 3:31; Lamentations 1:4; Leviticus 26:22; Psalm 125:5
- 7 2 Samuel 20:19; Isaiah 49:23; Romans 16:13; Esther 9:19; Judges 4:4–6
- 8 Deuteronomy 32:16–17; Judges 2:17; Judges 2:12; Judges 4:3; 1 Samuel 13:19–22
- 9 Judges 5:2; 2 Corinthians 8:3–4; 1 Chronicles 29:9; 2 Corinthians 9:5; 2 Corinthians 8:17
- 10 Judges 12:14; Judges 10:4; Psalm 105:2; Psalm 145:11; Isaiah 28:6
- 11 Micah 6:5; Judges 5:8; 1 Samuel 12:7; Deuteronomy 22:24; Lamentations 5:9
- 12 Ephesians 4:8; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 57:8; 2 Timothy 2:26; Ephesians 5:14
- 13 Revelation 2:26–27; Psalm 75:7; Isaiah 41:15–16; Romans 8:37; Revelation 3:9
- 14 Numbers 32:39–40; Judges 3:13; Judges 12:15; Judges 3:27; Judges 4:10
- 15 Judges 4:14; Judges 4:10; Proverbs 22:13; Judges 4:6; 1 Chronicles 12:32
- 16 Numbers 32:24; Numbers 32:1–5; Lamentations 3:40–41; Psalm 4:4; Psalm 77:6
- 17 Joshua 13:25; Joshua 19:24–31; Joshua 13:31
- 18 Judges 4:10; Judges 4:6; Judges 4:14; Acts 20:24; Esther 4:16
- 19 Judges 5:30; Judges 1:27; 1 Kings 4:12; Joshua 10:22–27; Revelation 19:19
- 20 Joshua 10:11; Judges 4:15; Psalm 77:17–18; 1 Samuel 7:10
- 21 Judges 4:7; Psalm 44:5; Micah 7:10; 1 Kings 18:40; Judges 4:13
- 22 Jeremiah 47:4; Psalm 33:17; Psalm 147:10–11; Micah 4:13; Psalm 20:7
- 23 1 Corinthians 16:22; 1 Samuel 18:17; Judges 21:9–10; Jeremiah 48:10; 1 Corinthians 3:9
- 24 Luke 1:42; Luke 1:28; Genesis 14:19; Judges 4:17; Proverbs 31:31
- 25 Judges 4:19–21
- 26 1 Samuel 17:49–51; Judges 4:21; 2 Samuel 20:22
- 27 Psalm 52:7; James 2:13; Matthew 7:2
- 28 Judges 4:15; Song of Songs 2:9; 2 Kings 1:2; James 5:7; Proverbs 7:6
- 30 Exodus 15:9; Psalm 45:14; Job 20:5; Genesis 37:3; 2 Samuel 13:18
- 31 Psalm 37:6; 2 Samuel 23:4; Psalm 19:4–5; Psalm 91:14; James 1:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences