First light in the hill country of Ephraim: a single tall date palm stands alone beside a footpath on a stony shoulder of the hills, a flat stone seat at its foot, terraces of olives falling away below.

The Book of

Judges 4

Twenty years of iron chariots. A prophetess under a palm tree. And a battle that will end in a tent.

24 verses≈ 5 min4 peopleBSB

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a delivererChapter 4
6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong God
11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverers
17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit

Deborah and Barak

After Ehud died, the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.

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Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

Mid-morning under the lone palm on a hill path: Deborah, a woman of middle age in a modest dark blue wool robe and plain head covering, sits on a flat stone listening gravely as two men of the hill villages lay out a dispute.

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, where the Israelites would go up to her for judgment.

She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the LORD, the God of Israel, is commanding you: ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, taking with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera the commander of Jabin’s army, his chariots, and his troops to the River Kishon, and I will deliver him into your hand.’”

Barak

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

Deborah

“I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the LORD will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.”

So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh, where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

Question

Quick question

Before any battle, Deborah was already serving God’s people in the hills of Ephraim.

Where did Deborah sit when the Israelites came to her for judgment?

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The battle by the Kishon

Deborah judged in the hills between Ramah and Bethel and sent for Barak at Kedesh in Naphtali. He gathered Zebulun and Naphtali and went up Mount Tabor. Sisera brought his chariots from Harosheth-hagoyim to the River Kishon on the plain below, and after the rout Barak chased them back to Harosheth-hagoyim. Jabin reigned at Hazor in the north. The site of Harosheth-hagoyim is uncertain, and so is Kedesh’s place here: some put Barak’s Kedesh near the Sea of Galilee, much closer to Tabor.

Judges 4:14

Morning, seen from behind and above: Barak, a bearded man in a plain wool tunic with a bronze spear, leads a long stream of Israelite men with spears down Tabor's steep oak-covered slope toward the plain, rain slanting across the valley.

So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Dusk after a storm on the flooded plain by the Kishon: one empty two-wheeled chariot stands tilted, a wheel sunk in brown mud and standing water, reins trailing; Tabor dark and far off.

And in front of him the LORD routed with the sword Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.

Then Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a single man was left.

0:18

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Reflect

Has not the LORD gone before you?

On Tabor, Barak’s men were safe: chariots cannot climb a mountain. Down on the plain, nine hundred of them were waiting. Deborah’s word was simple: “Has not the LORD gone before you?” And “Barak came down from Mount Tabor.” Where is God asking you to come down from a safe height into a place you fear? Write down what changes if He has already gone ahead of you there.

Jael Kills Sisera

Meanwhile, 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 house of Heber the Kenite.

Jael

Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Do not be afraid.”

So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

“Stand at the entrance to the tent,” he said, “and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’”

But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died.

When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple.

On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

Judges 4:23

Pray

The battle is the LORD’s

Barak won no honor, and Jael was no soldier, yet “On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.” Thank God that the battle is His, and that He uses whom He chooses. Then pray: Lord, when You call, give me courage to go, even down into the plain. Go before me, as You did then. And when the work is done, let the honor be Yours, not mine. Amen.

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Judges 4

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A verse to carry with you

Arise, for this is the day that the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone before you?

Judges 4:14

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