The Judges & Ruth

‘Awake, awake, O Deborah! Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, O Barak, and take hold of your captives, O son of Abinoam!’

Then the survivors came down to the nobles; the people of the LORD came down to me against the mighty.

Some came from Ephraim, with their roots in Amalek; Benjamin came with your people after you. The commanders came down from Machir, the bearers of the marshal’s staff from Zebulun.

The princes of Issachar were with Deborah, and Issachar was with Barak, rushing into the valley at his heels. In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.

Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.

Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. Dan, why did you linger by the ships? Asher stayed at the coast and remained in his harbors.

Zebulun was a people who risked their lives; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the battlefield.

Kings came and fought; then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, but they took no plunder of silver.

From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

The River Kishon swept them away, the ancient river, the River Kishon. March on, O my soul, in strength!

Then the hooves of horses thundered— the mad galloping of his stallions.

‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’

Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

He asked for water, and she gave him milk. In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.

She reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she shattered and pierced his temple.

At her feet he collapsed, he fell, there he lay still; at her feet he collapsed, he fell; where he collapsed, there he fell dead.

Sisera’s mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice and lamented: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’

Her wisest ladies answer; indeed she keeps telling herself,

‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil— a girl or two for each warrior, a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera, the spoil of embroidered garments for the neck of the looter?’

So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,

encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkeys.

For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.