8. God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates, but not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.
9. My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord!
10. “You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, consider
11. the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the victories of the Lord, the victories of his villagers in Israel. “Then the people of the Lord went down to the city gates.
12. ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’
13. “The remnant of the nobles came down; the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
14. Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek; Benjamin was with the people who followed you. From Makir captains came down, from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.
15. The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak, sent under his command into the valley. In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
16. Why did you stay among the sheep pens to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
17. Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships? Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.
18. The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.
19. “Kings came, they fought, the kings of Canaan fought. At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo, they took no plunder of silver.
20. From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21. The river Kishon swept them away, the age-old river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong!
22. Then thundered the horses’ hooves— galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.
23. ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’
24. “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25. He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
26. Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.
27. At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.
28. “Through the window peered Sisera’s mother; behind the lattice she cried out, ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’