5 The Song of Deborah and Barak

5:1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:

²“That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!

³“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁴“Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. ⁵The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. ⁷The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. ⁸When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? ⁹My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord.

¹⁰“Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets[1] and you who walk by the way. ¹¹To the sound of musicians[2] at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.

“Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord.

¹²“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. ¹³Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the Lord marched down for me against the mighty. ¹⁴From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley,[3] following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s[4] staff; ¹⁵the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. ¹⁶Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. ¹⁷Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. ¹⁸Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.

¹⁹“The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. ²⁰From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. ²¹The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might!

²²“Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.

²³“Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

²⁴“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. ²⁵He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl. ²⁶She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. ²⁷Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

²⁸“Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’ ²⁹Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself, ³⁰‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?— A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’

³¹“So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years.

[1] The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain; it may connote saddle blankets [2] Or archers; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [3] Septuagint; Hebrew in Amalek [4] Hebrew commander’s

6 Midian Oppresses Israel

6:1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. ²And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. ³For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. ⁴They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. ⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. ⁶And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

⁷When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, ⁸the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. ⁹And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”

The Call of Gideon

¹¹Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir,[5] if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴And the Lord[6] turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” ¹⁵And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” ¹⁶And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” ¹⁷And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me. ¹⁸Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”

¹⁹So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah[7] of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. ²⁰And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. ²¹Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. ²²Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” ²³But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” ²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

²⁵That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it ²⁶and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal

²⁸When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. ²⁹And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” ³⁰Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” ³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” ³²Therefore on that day Gideon[8] was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.

³³Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. ³⁵And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.

The Sign of the Fleece

³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, ³⁷behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” ³⁸And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” ⁴⁰And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

[5] Or Please, my Lord [6] Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [7] An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [8] Hebrew he