Deborah was a judge who settled disputes in Israel and a prophet who spoke God’s message. Judges identifies her as the wife of Lappidoth. She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people came to her for judgment.
After Ehud died, Israel again did evil in God’s sight. God gave them into the power of Jabin, the Canaanite king who ruled from Hazor. Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and Sisera commanded his army. After twenty years of harsh oppression, the people cried out to God.
Deborah summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She told him that God commanded him to take ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor. God would draw Sisera, his chariots, and his army to the Kishon River and deliver him into Barak’s hand.
Barak said he would go if Deborah accompanied him, but would not go without her. Deborah agreed to go and said the journey would not bring him honor, because God would hand Sisera over to a woman. They went to Kedesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men followed him up the mountain. Deborah went with him.
Hearing that Barak had gone up Mount Tabor, Sisera assembled his nine hundred iron chariots and all his troops from Harosheth of the Gentiles at the Kishon River. Deborah told Barak to rise: this was the day God had delivered Sisera into his hand, and God had gone ahead of him. Barak led the ten thousand men down the mountain. God threw Sisera’s army into confusion. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and troops, and Sisera’s entire army was killed.
Sisera fled to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Jabin and Heber’s household were at peace. Jael welcomed him and covered him. When he asked for water, she gave him milk. While the exhausted commander slept deeply, she drove a tent peg through his temple with a hammer and killed him. Jael brought the pursuing Barak into the tent to see Sisera dead. The woman who killed Sisera was Jael.
That day God subdued Jabin before Israel. Israel pressed harder and harder against him until he was destroyed. Judges recounts Sisera’s defeat and Jabin’s eventual destruction in turn.
Deborah and Barak sang to God that day. They praised the leaders who led and the people who volunteered. Their song describes the earth and mountains shaking and the clouds dropping water as God came from Seir and Edom. It recalls a time when highways were empty, travelers used side paths, and rulers had ceased in Israel. Deborah sings that she arose as a mother in Israel.
The song remembers those who joined the fighting. It names Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali. It also asks why Reuben stayed among the sheepfolds, Gilead remained beyond the Jordan, Dan stayed with ships, and Asher stayed by the sea. Zebulun and Naphtali are praised as people who risked their lives.
Deborah and Barak sing that the Canaanite kings fought at Taanach by Megiddo’s waters but took no silver as plunder. The stars are described as fighting Sisera, and the Kishon River as sweeping the enemy away. Following the account of battle in Judges 4, chapter 5 tells of the victory through poetry and song.
The song calls Jael blessed among women who live in tents and describes Sisera’s fall. It then pictures his mother looking through a window and asking why his chariot is late. Her attendants and the mother herself imagine that he is delayed while dividing captured women and embroidered clothing. Readers hear this scene already knowing that Sisera is dead.
The song ends with a prayer that God’s enemies perish and that those who love God be like the sun rising in strength. Judges then records that the land had rest for forty years.