---
title: Judges 5
slug: kjv/judges-5
createdAt: 2024-08-11T02:40:48.110Z
---

**1 **Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

**2 **Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

**3 **Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, *even* I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing *praise* to the LORD God of Israel.

**4 **LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

**5 **The mountains melted from before the LORD, *even* that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

**6 **In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.

**7 ***The inhabitants of* the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

**8 **They chose new gods; then *was* war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

**9 **My heart *is* toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.

**10 **Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.

**11 ***They that are delivered* from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, *even* the righteous acts *toward the inhabitants* of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

**12 **Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.

**13 **Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.

**14 **Out of Ephraim *was there* a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.

**15 **And the princes of Issachar *were* with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben *there were* great thoughts of heart.

**16 **Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben *there were* great searchings of heart.

**17 **Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.

**18 **Zebulun and Naphtali *were* a people *that* jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.

**19 **The kings came *and* fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

**20 **They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

**21 **The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

**22 **Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.

**23 **Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

**24 **Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

**25 **He asked water, *and* she gave *him* milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

**26 **She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

**27 **At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

**28 **The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot *so* long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

**29 **Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

**30 **Have they not sped? have they *not* divided the prey; to every man a damsel *or* two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, *meet* for the necks of *them that take* the spoil?

**31 **So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but *let* them that love him *be* as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.