1. The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; Ehud was dead.
2. So the Lord sold them into the power of the Canaanite king, Jabin, who reigned in Hazor. The general of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim.
3. But the Israelites cried out to the Lord; for with his nine hundred iron chariots Jabin harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
4. At that time the prophet Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel.
5. She used to sit under Deborah’s palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel in the mountain region of Ephraim, where the Israelites came up to her for judgment.
6. She had Barak, son of Abinoam, summoned from Kedesh of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands: Go, march against Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun.
7. I will draw Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, out to you at the Wadi Kishon, together with his chariots and troops, and I will deliver them into your power.”
8. But Barak answered her, “If you come with me, I will go; if you do not come with me, I will not go.”