Deborah and Barak: the Victory over Sisera
The prophetess Deborah rouses Barak against Sisera and his nine hundred iron chariots. The brook Kishon sweeps the army away, and Deborah's song becomes one of the great poems of the Bible.
For twenty years the north was ruled by Jabin king of Hazor, whose general Sisera held the Jezreel valley with nine hundred iron chariots.
Israel's judge was Deborah, a prophetess. She sat under a palm between Ramah and Bethel, and people came up to her for judgment. She summoned Barak son of Abinoam with God's instruction: take ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor, and I will draw Sisera to you at the brook Kishon. Barak set a condition: if you come with me, I will go. Deborah agreed, but warned that the glory would go to a woman.
The battle was not decided by weapons. A downpour turned the Kishon into a torrent; the chariots bogged down and were swept away. Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; she gave him milk, covered him, and when he slept drove a tent peg through his temple.
Deborah and Barak then sang the song of Judges 5, one of the oldest poems in the Bible — a rebuke to the tribes who stayed home, the line "from heaven they fought, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera," and the closing image of Sisera's mother at the window, counting the hours for a son who will not return.