Then the LORD's people marched down to the city gates.
12"Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
Arise, Barak!
Capture your prisoners,
Abinoam's son!"
13Then those who remained marched down against royalty;
the LORD's people marched downq against warriors.
14From Ephraim they set outr into the valley,s
after you, Benjamin, with your people!
From Machir commanders marched down,
and from Zebulun those carrying the official's staff.
15The leaders of Issachar came along with Deborah;
Issachar was attached to Barak,
and was sent into the valley behind him.
Among the clans of Reuben
there was deep soul-searching.
16"Why did you stay back among the sheep pens,
listening to the music for the flocks?"
For the clans of Reuben
there was deep soul-searching.
17Gilead stayed on the other side of the Jordan,
and Dan, why did he remain with the ships?
Asher stayed by the seacoast,
camping at his harbors.
18Zebulun is a people that readily risked death;
Naphtali too in the high countryside.
19Kings came and made war;
the kings of Canaan fought
at Taanach by Megiddo's waters,
but they captured no spoils of silver.
20The stars fought from the sky;
from their orbits they fought against Sisera.
21The Kishon River swept them away;
the advancing river, the Kishon River.
March on, my life, with might!
22Then the horses' hooves pounded
with the galloping, galloping of their stallions.
23"Curse Meroz," says the LORD's messenger,
"curse its inhabitants bitterly,
because they didn't come to the LORD's aid,
to the LORD's aid against the warriors."
24May Jael be blessed above all women;
may the wife of Heber the Kenite
be blessed above all tent-dwelling women.
25He asked for water, and she provided milk;
she presented him cream in a majestic bowl.
26She reached out her hand for the stake,
her strong hand for the worker's hammer.
She struck Sisera;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his skull.
27At her feet he sank, fell, and lay flat;
at her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell--dead.
28Through the window she watched,
Sisera's mother looked longinglyt through the lattice.
"Why is his chariot taking so long to come?
Why are the hoofbeats of his chariot horses delayed?"
29Her wisest attendants answer;
indeed, she replies to herself:
30"Wouldn't they be finding and dividing the loot?
A girl or two for each warrior;
loot of colored cloths for Sisera;
loot of colored, embroidered cloths;
two colored, embroidered cloths
as loot for every neck."
31May all your enemies perish like this, LORD!
But may your allies be like the sun, rising in its strength.
And the land was peaceful for forty years.
Oppression by the Midianites
Judges 6The Israelites did things that the LORD saw as evil, and the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. 2The power of the Midianites prevailed over Israel, and because of the Midianites, the Israelites used crevices and caves in the mountains as hidden strongholds. 3Whenever the Israelites planted seeds, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners would invade. 4They would set up camp against the Israelites and destroy the land's crops as far as Gaza, leaving nothing to keep Israel alive, not even sheep, oxen, or donkeys. 5They would invade with their herds and tents, coming like a swarm of locusts, so that no one could count them or their camels. They came into the land to destroy it. 6So Israel became very weak on account of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.
7This time when the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8the LORD sent them a prophet, who said to them, "The LORD, Israel's God, proclaims: I myself brought you up from Egypt, and I led you out of the house of slavery. 9I delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all your oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10I told you, 'I am the LORD your God; you must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.' But you have not obeyed me."
Gideon's commissioning
11Then the LORD's messenger came and sat under the oak at Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12The LORD's messenger appeared to him and said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior!"
13But Gideon replied to him, "With all due respect, my Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his amazing works that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Didn't the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and allowed Midian to overpower us."
14Then the LORD turned to him and said, "You have strength, so go and rescue Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not personally sending you?"
15But again Gideon said to him, "With all due respect, my Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the youngest in my household."
16The LORD replied, "Because I'm with you, you'll defeat the Midianites as if they were just one person."u
17Then Gideon said to him, "If I've gained your approval, please show me a sign that it's really you speaking with me. 18Don't leave here until I return, bring out my offering, and set it in front of you."
The Lord replied, "I'll stay until you return."
19So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and used an ephahv of flour for unleavened bread. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them. 20Then God's messenger said to him, "Take the meat