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1Then 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
and you who walk by the way.
11To the sound of musicians 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,
following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen;
from Machir marched down the commanders,
and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s 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.
God's power so vividly described in the theophany of 5:4-5 also contrasts with Sisera's fall. At the beginning and at the end of the poem "mothers" anticipate the appearance of their warrior. For Deborah the mother of Israel, it is the Lord himself, and his march cannot be stopped. Sisera's mother, on the other hand, keeps looking for the general, expecting him to be triumphant. But Sisera does not even come home, not to speak of victory in battle. In 5:30 the honorable lady suspects that his delay in coming home has to do with dividing the war booty. The language of booty does not only refer to things, but to people, too. The Hebrew of 5:30a reads: "Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? To every man a womb, a pair of wombs…." This is not very refined. Sisera's mother, talking about "wombs" as the prize of war, alludes to the cruel realities of war: To victorious soldiers the women of vanquished foes represented objects for their sexual gratification, yet another venue for proving one's manhood.
But the tables have turned. Used to killing and raping women, general Sisera is himself killed and humiliated by a woman. Twice in 5:27 the text mentions that "Sisera fell between the feet" of Jael. So, again, we see the presence of irony in this book. It is payback time, and God pays back in kind. The end of Sisera's exploits according to the last word of 5:27 is not death. He is being "plundered," or "wasted," as the Hebrew would have it. This is language depicting people who have experienced the ravages of war. While Sisera's mother sees her dear son as raping women and taking the spoil, he himself is plundered of his manly glory. God manifests his power in the humiliation of his arrogant enemies. We see this in a Saddam Hussein, whose extravagant palaces are turned into a fox hole. We see it in Hitler who died in a bunker, physically sick and demented, a broken man. But all this is only the prelude to the day of Jesus Christ, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The closing verse of ch.5 confirms this notion: "Thus let all your enemies perish, O Yahweh! But let those who love him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength." And so it will be.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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