4Verse 1After Ehud died, the Israelis again started doing things Yahweh said were very evil.Verse 2So he allowed the army of Jabin, one of the kings of Canaan land, who ruled in Hazor city, to conquer the Israelis. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-Haggoyim.Verse 3Sisera’s army had 900 chariots. For 20 years he oppressed the Israelis. Then they pleaded to Yahweh to help them.Verse 4At that time Deborah, who was the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess who had become the leader in Israel.Verse 5She would sit under her palm tree at a place between Ramah and Bethel, in the hilly area where the descendants of Ephraim lived, and people would come to her and ask her to settle disputes between them.Verse 6One day she summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, when he was in Kedesh, in the area where the descendants of Naphtali lived. She said to him, “This is what Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, is commanding you to do: ‘Take with you 1,000 men, some from the descendants of Naphtali and some from the descendants of Zebulun, and lead them to Tabor Mountain.Verse 7Yahweh will lure Sisera, the commander of King Jabin’s army, to come with his chariots and his army, to the Kishon River, a few miles away. I will enable your men to defeat them there.’ ”Verse 8Barak replied, “I will go only if you go with me.”Verse 9She replied, “Okay, I will go with you. But because that is what you have decided to do, Yahweh will enable a woman to defeat Sisera, and the result will be that ◄you will not be honored/people will not honor you► for doing that.”Verse 10So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There he summoned men from Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men came to him, and then they went together with Deborah to Tabor Mountain.Verse 11At that time Heber, one of the descendants of the Ken people-group, had moved with his wife Jael from the area where that group lived, and set up his tent near the big oak tree at Zaanannim, near Kedesh. Heber was a descendant of Moses’ brother-in-law Hobab.Verse 12Someone told Sisera that Barak had gone up on Tabor Mountain with an army.Verse 13So he gathered his troops with their 900 chariots, and they marched from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the Kishon River.Verse 14Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! This is the day that Yahweh will enable your army to defeat the army of Sisera. Yahweh is going ahead of you!” So Barak led his men as they descended from Tabor Mountain.Verse 15As they advanced, Yahweh caused Sisera and all his chariots and his army to have great difficulty maneuvering/moving around. So Sisera jumped down from his chariot and ran away.Verse 16But Barak and his men pursued the other chariots and the enemy soldiers as far as Harosheth-Haggoyim. They killed all of the men in Sisera’s army. Not one man survived.Verse 17But Sisera ran to Jael’s tent. He did that because his boss, King Jabin of Hazor city, was a good friend of Jael’s husband Heber.Verse 18Jael went out to greet Sisera. She said to him, “Sir, come into my tent! Do not be afraid!” So he went into the tent and lay down, and she covered him with a blanket.Verse 19He said to her, “I’m thirsty; can you give me some water?” So she opened a leather container of milk, and gave him a drink. Then she covered him with the blanket again.Verse 20He said to her, “Stand in the entrance of the tent. If someone comes and asks ‘Is anyone else here?’, say ‘No.’”Verse 21Sisera was very exhausted, so he soon was asleep. While he was sleeping, Jael crept quietly to him, holding a hammer and a tent peg. She pounded the peg into his skull, and all the way through his head into the ground, and he died.Verse 22When Barak passed by Jael’s tent to look for Sisera, she went out to greet him. She said, “Come in, and I will show you the man you are searching for!” So he followed her into the tent, and he saw Sisera lying there, dead, with the tent peg through his head.Verse 23On that day God enabled the Israelis to defeat the army of Jabin, the king of the people of Canaan.Verse 24From that time, the Israeli people continued to become stronger, and the army of King Jabin continued to become weaker. Finally the Israelis were able to completely subdue the people ruled by the king of Canaan.