Deborah and Barak

After Ehud’s death, Israel again does evil. The LORD sells them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, whose army commander, Sisera, has nine hundred iron chariots: twenty years of oppression. Deborah, a prophetess, is then judging Israel under a palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim. She summons Barak: the LORD commands him to take up position on Mount Tabor with ten thousand men, and he will deliver Sisera to him at the river Kishon. Barak hesitates: “If thou wilt go with me, then I will go.” Deborah agrees, but warns that the honor of the victory will go to a woman. At Deborah’s signal, Barak goes down from Tabor, and the LORD routs Sisera’s army. Sisera flees on foot and takes refuge in the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. She gives him milk, covers him, and then, while he sleeps, drives a tent peg through his temple. Deborah and Barak celebrate the victory with a song, and the land has rest for forty years.