The Song of Deborah

Judges 5

Biblical Period

1On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang:

2When a-locks go untrimmed-ain Israel,
When people dedicate themselves—
Bless the Lord!
3Hear, O kings! Give ear, O potentates!
I will sing, will sing to the Lord,
Will hymn the Lord, the God of Israel.
4O Lord, when You came forth from Seir,
Advanced from the country of Edom,
The earth trembled;
The heavens dripped,
Yea, the clouds dripped water,
5The mountains quaked—
Before the Lord, Him of Sinai,
Before the Lord, God of Israel.
6In the days of Shamgar b-son of Anath,-b
In the days of Jael, caravansc ceased,
And wayfarers went
By roundabout paths.
7Deliverance ceased,
Ceased in Israel,
Till youd arose, O Deborah,
Arose, O mother, in Israel!
8When they chose new gods,
Was there a fighter then in the gates?
No shield or spear was seen
Among forty thousand in Israel!
9My heart is with Israel’s leaders,
With the dedicated of the people—
Bless the Lord!
10You riders on tawny she-asses,
You who sit on saddle rugs,
And you wayfarers, declare it!
11Louder than the e-sound of archers,-e
There among the watering places
Let them chant the gracious acts of the Lord,
His gracious deliverance of Israel.
Then did the people of the Lord
March down to the gates!
12Awake, awake, O Deborah!
Awake, awake, strike up the chant!
Arise, O Barak;
Take your captives, O son of Abinoam!
13Then was the remnant made victor over the mighty,
The Lord’s peoplef won my victory over the warriors.
14From Ephraim came they whose roots are in Amalek;
After you, your kin Benjamin;
From Machir came down leaders,
From Zebulun such as hold the marshal’s staff.
15And Issachar’s chiefs were with Deborah;
As Barak, so was Issachar—
Rushing after him into the valley.
Among the clans of Reuben
Were great decisions of heart.
16Why then did you stay among the sheepfolds
And listen as they pipe for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben
Were great searchings of heart!
17Gilead tarried beyond the Jordan;
And Dan—why did he linger g-by the ships?-g
Asher remained at the seacoast
And tarried at his landings.
18Zebulun is a people that mocked at death,
Naphtali—on the open heights.
19Then the kings came, they fought:
The kings of Canaan fought
At Taanach, by Megiddo’s waters—
They got no spoil of silver.
20The stars fought from heaven,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
21The torrent Kishon swept themh away,
The raging torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with courage!
22Then the horses’ hoofs pounded
As headlong galloped the steeds.
23“Curse Meroz!” said the angel of the Lord.
“Bitterly curse its inhabitants,
Because they came not to the aid of the Lord,
To the aid of the Lord among i the warriors.”
24Most blessed of women be Jael,
Wife of Heber the Kenite,
Most blessed of women in tents.
25He asked for water, she offered milk;
In a princely bowl she brought him curds.
26Her [left] hand reached for the tent pin,
Her right for the workmen’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, crushed his head,
Smashed and pierced his temple.
27At her feet he sank, lay outstretched,
At her feet he sank, lay still;
Where he sank, there he lay—destroyed.
28Through the window peered Sisera’s mother,
Behind the lattice she whined:j
“Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why so late the clatter of his wheels?”
29The wisest of her ladies give answer;
She, too, replies to herself:
30“They must be dividing the spoil they have found:
A damsel or two for each man,
Spoil of dyed cloths for Sisera,
Spoil of embroidered cloths,
A couple of embroidered cloths
Round every neck as spoil.”
31So may all Your enemies perish, O Lord!
But may His friends be as the sun rising in might!

And the land was tranquil forty years.

Notes

Apparently an expression of dedication.

Or “the Beth-anathite.”

Or “roads.”

Heb. qamti, archaic second-person singular feminine.

Or “thunder peals.”

Reading ‘am (with pathah) Adonai; so many Hebrew manuscripts.

Or “at Onioth,” a presumed designation of Dan’s region.

I.e., the kings of Canaan (v. 19).

Or “against.”

Or “gazed.”

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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Biblical Poetry

 Biblical poetry is characterized by short parallel lines, without a fixed meter or rhyming pattern, and include love poems, laments over the dead, victory poems, and laments, among others.

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