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Ehud had died, the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. 3 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 It was her custom to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites went to her for judgment.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Hasn’t the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go, march on Mount Tabor with ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun; 7 and I will lure out Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River, and I will deliver him into your hand’?”
8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”
9 “Very well, I will go with you,” Deborah answered. “But you will not receive glory for the task you are about to undertake, because the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah left and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh; and ten thousand men marched up with him. Deborah also went with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. Heber had pitched his tent beside the great oak tree of Zaanannim, which is near Kadesh.
12 When they reported to Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera assembled together all his chariots—nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 The Lord threw Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army into confusion, and they fell by the sword before the onslaught of Barak. Even Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-haggoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord, come in here; don’t be afraid.” So Sisera went into her tent, and she hid him under a rug.
19 He said to her, “Please give me some water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up again.
20 He told her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No’.”
21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, got a tent peg, and taking a hammer in her hand, she went silently to Sisera while he lay asleep, exhausted. She drove the tent peg through the temple of his head and into the ground, and he died.
22 As Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So when he went into her tent, and there was Sisera, lying dead with the tent peg through his temple.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.