Judges 4:1-12

¹After Ehud died, the people of Israel once again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

²Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was named Sisera, and he lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.

³The people of Israel called out to Yahweh for help, because Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and he oppressed the people of Israel with force for twenty years.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess (the wife of Lappidoth), was a leading judge in Israel at that time.

⁵She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came to her to settle their disputes.

⁶She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, commands you, 'Go to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun.

⁷I will draw out Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to meet you by the Kishon River, with his chariots and his army, and I will give you victory over him.'”

⁸Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go, but if you do not go with me, I will not go.”

⁹She said, “I will certainly go with you. However, the road on which you are going will not lead to your honor, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak called for the men of Zebulun and Naphtali to come together at Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah went along with him.

¹¹Now Heber (the Kenite) had separated himself from the Kenites—they were the descendants of Hobab (Moses' father-in-law)—and he pitched his tent by the oak in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

¹²When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,