The Song of Deborah

ca. 1200–332 BCE

About This Entry

This is a victory poem that recapitulates and celebrates the events narrated in the prose chapter that precedes it and adds elements that are lacking in the prose. In addition to parallelism, it is characterized by repetitions, refrains beginning “Then . . . ,” interjections addressing the heroes or an audience, and wordplay. Its archaic language and style suggest that it is one of the oldest poems in the Bible. It is written stichographically in biblical manuscripts.

¹On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang:

²When ^alocks go untrimmed^ain Israel,

When people dedicate themselves—

Bless the Lord!

³Hear, O kings! Give ear, O potentates!

I will sing, will sing to the Lord,

Will hymn the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁴O Lord, when You came forth from Seir,

Advanced from the country of Edom,

The earth trembled;

The heavens dripped,

Yea, the clouds dripped water,

⁵The mountains quaked—

Before the Lord, Him of Sinai,

Before the Lord, God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar ^bson of Anath,^b

In the days of Jael, caravans^c ceased,

And wayfarers went

By roundabout paths.

⁷Deliverance ceased,

Ceased in Israel,

Till you^d arose, O Deborah,

Arose, O mother, in Israel!

⁸When they chose new gods,

Was there a fighter then in the gates?

No shield or spear was seen

Among forty thousand in Israel!

⁹My heart is with Israel’s leaders,

With the dedicated of the people—

Bless the Lord!

¹⁰You riders on tawny she-asses,

You who sit on saddle rugs,

And you wayfarers, declare it!

¹¹Louder than the ^esound of archers,^e

There among the watering places

Let them chant the gracious acts of the Lord,

His gracious deliverance of Israel.

Then did the people of the Lord

March down to the gates!

¹²Awake, awake, O Deborah!

Awake, awake, strike up the chant!

Arise, O Barak;

Take your captives, O son of Abinoam!

¹³Then was the remnant made victor over the mighty,

The Lord’s people^f won my victory over the warriors.

¹⁴From Ephraim came they whose roots are in Amalek;

After you, your kin Benjamin;

From Machir came down leaders,

From Zebulun such as hold the marshal’s staff.

¹⁵And Issachar’s chiefs were with Deborah;

As Barak, so was Issachar—

Rushing after him into the valley.

Among the clans of Reuben

Were great decisions of heart.

¹⁶Why then did you stay among the sheepfolds

And listen as they pipe for the flocks?

Among the clans of Reuben

Were great searchings of heart!

¹⁷Gilead tarried beyond the Jordan;

And Dan—why did he linger ^gby the ships?^g

Asher remained at the seacoast

And tarried at his landings.

¹⁸Zebulun is a people that mocked at death,

Naphtali—on the open heights.

¹⁹Then the kings came, they fought:

The kings of Canaan fought

At Taanach, by Megiddo’s waters—

They got no spoil of silver.

²⁰The stars fought from heaven,

From their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The torrent Kishon swept them^h away,

The raging torrent, the torrent Kishon.

March on, my soul, with courage!

²²Then the horses’ hoofs pounded

As headlong galloped the steeds.

²³“Curse Meroz!” said the angel of the Lord.

“Bitterly curse its inhabitants,

Because they came not to the aid of the Lord,

To the aid of the Lord among ⁱ the warriors.”

²⁴Most blessed of women be Jael,

Wife of Heber the Kenite,

Most blessed of women in tents.

²⁵He asked for water, she offered milk;

In a princely bowl she brought him curds.

²⁶Her [left] hand reached for the tent pin,

Her right for the workmen’s hammer.

She struck Sisera, crushed his head,

Smashed and pierced his temple.

²⁷At her feet he sank, lay outstretched,

At her feet he sank, lay still;

Where he sank, there he lay—destroyed.

²⁸Through the window peered Sisera’s mother,

Behind the lattice she whined:^j

“Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why so late the clatter of his wheels?”

²⁹The wisest of her ladies give answer;

She, too, replies to herself:

³⁰“They must be dividing the spoil they have found:

A damsel or two for each man,

Spoil of dyed cloths for Sisera,

Spoil of embroidered cloths,

A couple of embroidered cloths

Round every neck as spoil.”

³¹So may all Your enemies perish, O Lord!

But may His friends be as the sun rising in might!

And the land was tranquil forty years.

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Notes

Apparently an expression of dedication.

Or “the Beth-anathite.”

Or “roads.”

Heb. qamti, archaic second-person singular feminine.

Or “thunder peals.”

Reading ‘am (with pathah) Adonai; so many Hebrew manuscripts.

Or “at Onioth,” a presumed designation of Dan’s region.

I.e., the kings of Canaan (v. 19).

Or “against.”

Or “gazed.”

Credits

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

The Song of Deborah

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