1. After Ehud had died, the Israelites again did things that the Lord saw as evil.
2. So the Lord gave them over to King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, and he was stationed in Harosheth-ha-goiim.
3. The Israelites cried out to the Lord because Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly for twenty years.
4. Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was a leader of Israel at that time.
5. She would sit under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraim highlands, and the Israelites would come to her to settle disputes.
6. She sent word to Barak, Abinoam’s son, from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "Hasn’t the Lord, Israel’s God, issued you a command? ‘Go and assemble at Mount Tabor, taking ten thousand men from the people of Naphtali and Zebulun with you.
7. I’ll lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, to assemble with his chariots and troops against you at the Kishon River, and then I’ll help you overpower him.’"
8. Barak replied to her, "If you’ll go with me, I’ll go; but if not, I won’t go."
9. Deborah answered, "I’ll definitely go with you. However, the path you’re taking won’t bring honor to you, because the Lord will hand over Sisera to a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10. He summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men marched out behind him. Deborah marched out with him too.
11. Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law, and had settled as far away as Elon-bezaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12. When it was reported to Sisera that Barak, Abinoam’s son, had marched up to Mount Tabor,