Judges 5:20-31

20They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.1

21The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

22Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.2

23Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of Yhwh, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of Yhwh, to the help of Yhwh against the mighty.

24Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

25He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.3

27At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.45

28The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

29Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,6

30Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?7

31So let all thine enemies perish, O Yhwh: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.