After Ehud died, Israel again did evil. God gave them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan at Hazor. His commander Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and oppressed Israel for twenty years. Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel beneath her palm between Ramah and Bethel in Ephraim.
Deborah summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh and told him to gather ten thousand from Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. God would draw Sisera, his chariots, and his army to the Kishon and give them into Barak’s hand. Barak said he would go only if Deborah went with him. She agreed, but said the honor would not be his because Sisera would be given into a woman’s hand.
Barak gathered ten thousand men, and Sisera brought his chariots and army to the Kishon. Deborah told Barak to rise, for God had gone before him. Barak descended Tabor with his men. God threw Sisera’s army into panic, and Sisera left his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the army until none remained.
Sisera fled to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, because Jabin and Heber’s household were at peace. Jael invited him in, covered him, gave him milk when he asked for water, and stood at his request near the entrance. When Sisera fell into deep sleep, she took a tent peg and hammer and drove the peg through his temple. He died.
As Barak came pursuing Sisera, Jael met him and showed him the man he sought dead in the tent. God subdued Jabin before Israel, and Israel pressed harder until Jabin was destroyed.
Deborah and Barak sang that day. They praised leaders and people who offered themselves willingly, remembered God’s advance from Seir, and sang that the stars fought from heaven and the Kishon swept Sisera away. Jael appeared in the song with the tent peg, while Sisera’s mother waited at the window for his chariot. The song asked that those who love God be like the sun rising in strength. The land had peace for forty years.