Judges Chapter 4

Deborah and Barak deliver Israel

4:1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
4:2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor ; the captain of whose host [was] Sisera, which stayed in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
4:3 And the children of Israel cried to the LORD for he had nine hundred chariots of iron ; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
4:4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
4:6 And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said to him, Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, [saying], Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun ?
4:7 And I will draw to you to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude ; and I will deliver him into your hand.
4:8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go but if you will not go with me, [then] I will not go.
4:9 And she said, I will surely go with you in spite of the journey that you take shall not be for your honor ; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
4:10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh ; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet and Deborah went up with him.
4:11 Now Heber the Kenite, [which was] of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent to the plain of Zaanaim, which [is] by Kedesh.
4:12 And they shown Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.
4:13 And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, [even] nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that [were] with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles to the river of Kishon.
4:14 And Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this [is] the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand is not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.
4:15 And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all [his] chariots, and all [his] host, with the edge of the sword before Barak ; so that Sisera lighted down off [his] chariot, and fled away on his feet.
4:16 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, to Harosheth of the Gentiles and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword ; [and] there was not a man left.
4:17 However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite for [there was] peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

Death of Sisera

4:18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in to her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.
4:19 And he said to her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink ; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.
4:20 Again he said to her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man here ? that you will say, No.
4:21 Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
4:22 And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. And when he came into her [tent], behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail [was] in his temples.
4:23 So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
4:24 And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan