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Judges 4:1-24\n\nDeborah\n4 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.\n\n4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, \u201cThe Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: \u2018Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin\u2019s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.\u2019\u201d\n\n8 Barak said to her, \u201cIf you go with me, I will go; but if you don\u2019t go with me, I won\u2019t go.\u201d\n\n9 \u201cCertainly I will go with you,\u201d said Deborah. \u201cBut because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.\u201d So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.\n\n11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses\u2019 brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.\n\n12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.\n\n14 Then Deborah said to Barak, \u201cGo! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?\u201d So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15 At Barak\u2019s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.\n\n16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera\u2019s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.\n\n18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, \u201cCome, my lord, come right in. Don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.\n\n19 \u201cI\u2019m thirsty,\u201d he said. \u201cPlease give me some water.\u201d She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.\n\n20 \u201cStand in the doorway of the tent,\u201d he told her. \u201cIf someone comes by and asks you, \u2018Is anyone in there?\u2019 say \u2018No.\u2019\u201d\n\n21 But Jael, Heber\u2019s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.\n\n22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. \u201cCome,\u201d she said, \u201cI will show you the man you\u2019re looking for.\u201d So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple\u2014dead.\n\n23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.