Deborah and Barak

¹After Ehud died, the people of Israel sinned against the Lord again.

²So the Lord let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles.

³Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help.

⁴Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet, and she was serving as a judge for the Israelites at that time.

⁵She would sit under a certain palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would go there for her decisions.

⁶One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam from the city of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has given you this command: ‘Take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor.

⁷I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.’”

⁸Then Barak replied, “I will go if you go with me, but if you don't go with me, I won't go either.”

⁹She answered, “All right, I will go with you, but you won't get any credit for the victory, because the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah set off for Kedesh with Barak.

¹⁰Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him.

¹¹In the meantime Heber the Kenite had set up his tent close to Kedesh near the oak tree at Zaanannim. He had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses.

¹²When Sisera learned that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor,

¹³he called out his nine hundred iron chariots and all his men, and sent them from Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles to the Kishon River.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! The Lord is leading you! Today he has given you victory over Sisera.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men.

¹⁵When Barak attacked with his army, the Lord threw Sisera into confusion together with all his chariots and men. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles, and Sisera's whole army was killed. Not a man was left.

¹⁷Sisera ran away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because King Jabin of Hazor was at peace with Heber's family.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, sir; come into my tent. Don't be afraid.” So he went in, and she hid him behind a curtain.

¹⁹He said to her, “Please give me a drink of water; I'm thirsty.” She opened a leather bag of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again.

²⁰Then he told her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no.”

²¹Sisera was so tired that he fell sound asleep. Then Jael took a hammer and a tent peg, quietly went up to him, and killed him by driving the peg right through the side of his head and into the ground.

²²When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for.” So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.

²³That day God gave the Israelites victory over Jabin, the Canaanite king.

²⁴They pressed harder and harder against him until they destroyed him.

The Song of Deborah and Barak

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

²Praise the Lord! The Israelites were determined to fight; the people gladly volunteered.

³Listen, you kings! Pay attention, you rulers! I will sing and play music to Israel's God, the Lord.

⁴Lord, when you left the mountains of Seir, when you came out of the region of Edom, the earth shook, and rain fell from the sky. Yes, water poured down from the clouds.

⁵The mountains quaked before the Lord of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans no longer went through the land, and travelers used the back roads.

⁷The towns of Israel stood abandoned, Deborah; they stood empty until you came, came like a mother for Israel.

⁸Then there was war in the land when the Israelites chose new gods. Of the forty thousand men in Israel, did anyone carry shield or spear?

⁹My heart is with the commanders of Israel, with the people who gladly volunteered. Praise the Lord!

¹⁰Tell of it, you that ride on white donkeys, sitting on saddles, and you that must walk wherever you go.

¹¹Listen! The noisy crowds around the wells are telling of the Lord's victories, the victories of Israel's people! Then the Lord's people marched down from their cities.

¹²Lead on, Deborah, lead on! Lead on! Sing a song! Lead on! Forward, Barak son of Abinoam, lead your captives away!

¹³Then the faithful ones came down to their leaders; the Lord's people came to him ready to fight.

¹⁴They came from Ephraim into the valley, behind the tribe of Benjamin and its people. The commanders came down from Machir, the officers down from Zebulun.

¹⁵The leaders of Issachar came with Deborah; yes, Issachar came and Barak too, and they followed him into the valley. But the tribe of Reuben was divided; they could not decide to come.

¹⁶Why did they stay behind with the sheep? To listen to shepherds calling the flocks? Yes, the tribe of Reuben was divided; they could not decide to come.

¹⁷The tribe of Gad stayed east of the Jordan, and the tribe of Dan remained by the ships. The tribe of Asher stayed by the seacoast; they remained along the shore.

¹⁸But the people of Zebulun and Naphtali risked their lives on the battlefield.

¹⁹At Taanach, by the stream of Megiddo, the kings came and fought; the kings of Canaan fought, but they took no silver away.

²⁰The stars fought from the sky; as they moved across the sky, they fought against Sisera.

²¹A flood in the Kishon swept them away— the onrushing Kishon River. I shall march, march on, with strength!

²²Then the horses came galloping on, stamping the ground with their hoofs.

²³“Put a curse on Meroz,” says the angel of the Lord, “a curse, a curse on those who live there. They did not come to help the Lord, come as soldiers to fight for him.”

²⁴The most fortunate of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite— the most fortunate of women who live in tents.

²⁵Sisera asked for water, but she gave him milk; she brought him cream in a beautiful bowl.

²⁶She took a tent peg in one hand, a worker's hammer in the other; she struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she pierced him through the head.

²⁷He sank to his knees, fell down and lay still at her feet. At her feet he sank to his knees and fell; he fell to the ground, dead.

²⁸Sisera's mother looked out of the window; she gazed from behind the lattice. “Why is his chariot so late in coming?” she asked. “Why are his horses so slow to return?”

²⁹Her wisest friends answered her, and she told herself over and over,

³⁰“They are only finding things to capture and divide, a woman or two for every soldier, rich cloth for Sisera, embroidered pieces for the neck of the queen.”

³¹So may all your enemies die like that, O Lord, but may your friends shine like the rising sun! And there was peace in the land for forty years.

Ruth Works in the Field of Boaz

¹Naomi had a relative named Boaz, a rich and influential man who belonged to the family of her husband Elimelech.

²One day Ruth said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields to gather the grain that the harvest workers leave. I am sure to find someone who will let me work with him.” Naomi answered, “Go ahead, daughter.”

³So Ruth went out to the fields and walked behind the workers, picking up the heads of grain which they left. It so happened that she was in a field that belonged to Boaz.

⁴Some time later Boaz himself arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the workers. “The Lord be with you!” he said. “The Lord bless you!” they answered.

⁵Boaz asked the man in charge, “Who is that young woman?”

⁶The man answered, “She is the foreigner who came back from Moab with Naomi.

⁷She asked me to let her follow the workers and gather grain. She has been working since early morning and has just now stopped to rest for a while under the shelter.”

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Let me give you some advice. Don't gather grain anywhere except in this field. Work with the women here;

⁹watch them to see where they are reaping and stay with them. I have ordered my men not to molest you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and drink from the water jars that they have filled.”

¹⁰Ruth bowed down with her face touching the ground, and said to Boaz, “Why should you be so concerned about me? Why should you be so kind to a foreigner?”

¹¹Boaz answered, “I have heard about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. I know how you left your father and mother and your own country and how you came to live among a people you had never known before.

¹²May the Lord reward you for what you have done. May you have a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, to whom you have come for protection!”

¹³Ruth answered, “You are very kind to me, sir. You have made me feel better by speaking gently to me, even though I am not the equal of one of your servants.”

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, “Come and have a piece of bread, and dip it in the sauce.” So she sat with the workers, and Boaz passed some roasted grain to her. She ate until she was satisfied, and she still had some food left over.

^15-16After she had left to go and gather grain, Boaz ordered the workers, “Let her gather grain even where the bundles are lying, and don't say anything to stop her. Besides that, pull out some heads of grain from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.”

¹⁷So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening, and when she had beaten it out, she found she had nearly twenty-five pounds.

¹⁸She took the grain back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. She also gave her the food left over from the meal.

¹⁹Naomi asked her, “Where did you gather all this grain today? Whose field have you been working in? May God bless the man who took an interest in you!” So Ruth told Naomi that she had been working in a field belonging to a man named Boaz.

²⁰“May the Lord bless Boaz!” Naomi exclaimed. “The Lord always keeps his promises to the living and the dead.” And she went on, “That man is a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us.”

²¹Then Ruth said, “Best of all, he told me to keep gathering grain with his workers until they finish the harvest.”

²²Naomi said to Ruth, “Yes, daughter, it will be better for you to work with the women in Boaz' field. You might be molested if you went to someone else's field.”

²³So Ruth worked with them and gathered grain until all the barley and wheat had been harvested. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.

A Call to Praise God

¹Come, praise the Lord, all his servants, all who serve in his Temple at night.

²Raise your hands in prayer in the Temple, and praise the Lord!

³May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Zion!