² “When long hair hangs loosely in Israel,
    when the people willingly offer themselves,
        bless Yahweh!
³ Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
    I will sing to Yahweh;
    I will sing praise to Yahweh,
        the God of Israel.
⁴ Yahweh, when you went down from Seir,
    when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled, the heavens poured down,
    the clouds poured down water.
⁵ The mountains trembled^[a] before Yahweh,
    this Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
⁶ “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
    in the days of Jael, the caravans had ceased,
    the travelers,^[b] they kept to the byways.^[c]
7 The warriors^[d] ceased;
    they failed to appear in Israel,
until I,^[e] Deborah, arose;
    I^[f] arose as a mother in Israel.
⁸ God chose new leaders,^[g]
    then war was at the gates;
a small shield or a spear was not seen
    among forty thousand in Israel.
⁹ My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel,
    those offering themselves willingly among the people;
        bless Yahweh!
¹⁰ The riders of white female donkeys,
    those sitting on saddle blankets,
        and those going on the way, talk about it!
¹¹ At the sound of those dividing^[h] the sheep
        among the watering places,
    there they will recount the righteous deeds of Yahweh,
    the righteous deeds for his warriors^[i] in Israel.
Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
¹² “Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
    Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
Get up, Barak!
    Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.
¹³ Then the remnant went down to the nobles;
    the people of Yahweh went down for him^[j] against the mighty.
¹⁴ From Ephraim is their root into Amalek,
    after you, Benjamin, with your family;
from Makir the commanders went down,
    and from Zebulun those carrying the scepter
        of the military commander.
¹⁵ And the chiefs^[k] in Issachar were with Deborah;
    and Issachar likewise was with Barak;
    into the valley he was sent to get him from behind.^[l]
Among the clans of Reuben
    were great decisions of the heart.^[m]
16 Why do you sit among the sheepfolds,
    to hear the calling sounds of the herds?
For the clans of Reuben,
    there were great searchings of the heart.
¹⁷ Gilead has remained^[n] beyond the Jordan.
    Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner with ships?
Asher sat at the coast of the waters,
    and by his coves he has been settling down.
¹⁸ Zebulun is a people who scorned death,
    and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
¹⁹ “The kings came, they fought;
    then the kings of Canaan fought;
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,
    they got no plunder in silver.
²⁰ The stars fought from heaven;
    from their courses they fought against Sisera.
²¹ The wadi^[o] torrent of Kishon swept them away,
    the raging wadi torrent,
        the wadi torrent of Kishon.
    March on, my soul, with strength!
²² “Then the hooves of the horse beat loudly,
    because of galloping, galloping of his stallions.
²³ ‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of Yahweh;
    ‘curse bitterly its inhabitants,
because they did not come to the help of Yahweh,
    to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.’
²⁴ “Most blessed of women is Jael,
    the wife of Heber the Kenite;
        most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.
²⁵ He asked for water, and she gave milk;
    in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.
²⁶ She reached out her hand to the peg,
    and her right hand for the workman’s hammer;
and she struck Sisera, crushed his head,
    and she shattered and pierced his temple.
²⁷ Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay.
    Between her feet he sank down, he fell;
        Where he sank down, there he fell—dead.^[p]
28 “Through the window she looked down;
    the mother of Sisera cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot delayed in coming?
    Why do the hoof beats^[q] of his chariot tarry?’
²⁹ The wisest of her ladies answer her;
    she also answers the question herself:
³⁰ ‘Are they not finding and dividing the plunder?
    A bedmate or two bedmates for every man;^[r]
colorful garments for Sisera,
    plunder of colorful garments,^[s]
beautifully finished colorful garments,
    on the neck of the plunderer?’
³¹ So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh,
but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest.”