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The Blue Letter Bible

Judges 5 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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The Song of Deborah and Barak

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:1 - Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:2 - “That the leaders took the lead in Israel,
that the people offered themselves willingly,
bless the LORD!
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:3 - “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;
to the LORD I will sing;
I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:4 - “LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled
and the heavens dropped,
yes, the clouds dropped water.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:5 - The mountains quaked before the LORD,
even Sinai before the LORD,[fn] the God of Israel.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:6 - “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned,
and travelers kept to the byways.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:7 - The villagers ceased in Israel;
they ceased to be until I arose;
I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:8 - When new gods were chosen,
then war was in the gates.
Was shield or spear to be seen
among forty thousand in Israel?
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:9 - My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel
who offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:10 - “Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,
you who sit on rich carpets[fn]
and you who walk by the way.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:11 - To the sound of musicians[fn] at the watering places,
there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD,
the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.
“Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:12 - “Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, break out in a song!
Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,
O son of Abinoam.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:13 - Then down marched the remnant of the noble;
the people of the LORD marched down for me against the mighty.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:14 - From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley,[fn]
following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen;
from Machir marched down the commanders,
and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s[fn] staff;
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:15 - the princes of Issachar came with Deborah,
and Issachar faithful to Barak;
into the valley they rushed at his heels.
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:16 - Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds,
to hear the whistling for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:17 - Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan;
and Dan, why did he stay with the ships?
Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,
staying by his landings.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:18 - Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death;
Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:19 - “The kings came, they fought;
then fought the kings of Canaan,
at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
they got no spoils of silver.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:20 - From heaven the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:21 - The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with might!
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:22 - “Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs
with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:23 - “Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD,
curse its inhabitants thoroughly,
because they did not come to the help of the LORD,
to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:24 - “Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:25 - He asked for water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:26 - She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:27 - Between her feet
he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
there he fell—dead.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:28 - “Out of the window she peered,
the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:29 - Her wisest princesses answer,
indeed, she answers herself,
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:30 - ‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?—
A womb or two for every man;
spoil of dyed materials for Sisera,
spoil of dyed materials embroidered,
two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 5:31 - “So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years.
ESV Footnotes
Or before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD
The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain; it may connote saddle blankets
Or archers; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
Septuagint; Hebrew in Amalek
Hebrew commander’s
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Judges Chapter 5 — Additional Translations: