Judges 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

After Ehud died, the people of Israel again did what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes.

So Yahweh handed them over to Jabin king of Canaan, who ruled from Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Nations.

The people of Israel cried out to Yahweh for help, because Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and had brutally oppressed Israel for twenty years.

Now Deborah, a woman who spoke for God, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.

She used to sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would come to her to have their disputes settled.

She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "Hasn’t Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded you? Go, march to Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun with you.

I will draw Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, to the Kishon River with his chariots and his troops, and I will hand him over to you."

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I’ll go. But if you won’t go with me, I won’t go."

"I’ll definitely go with you," she said. "But just so you know, you won’t get the glory for this campaign. Yahweh is going to hand Sisera over to a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Barak called up the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men marched behind him, and Deborah went up with him.

Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites -- the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law -- and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak tree at Zaanannim, near Kedesh.

When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,

Sisera called out all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all his troops from Harosheth of the Nations to the Kishon River.

Deborah said to Barak, "Move! This is the day Yahweh is handing Sisera over to you. Hasn’t Yahweh already gone ahead of you?" So Barak charged down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.

And Yahweh threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into a panic before Barak and the edge of the sword. Sisera jumped down from his chariot and fled on foot.

Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth of the Nations. Sisera’s entire army fell by the sword -- not a single man was left.

But Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come in, my lord. Come in here. Don’t be afraid." So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink -- I’m thirsty." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

He told her, "Stand at the entrance of the tent. If anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say ‘No.’"

Then Jael, Heber’s wife, grabbed a tent peg and a hammer. She crept up to him quietly while he was in a deep, exhausted sleep, and drove the peg through his temple and into the ground. He died.

And then Barak arrived, chasing Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said, "Come, I’ll show you the man you’re looking for." He went in with her, and there was Sisera -- dead on the ground with the tent peg through his temple.

On that day God brought down Jabin king of Canaan before the people of Israel.

And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had completely destroyed him.