21 Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Song of Deborah
1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
2 Praise ye the LORD
For the avenging of Israel,
When the people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes;
I, even I, will sing unto the LORD;
I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir,
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water.
5 The mountains melted from before the LORD,
Even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,
And the travellers walked through byways.
7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel,
Until that I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel,
That offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless ye the LORD.
10 Speak, ye that ride on white asses,
Ye that sit in judgment,
And walk by the way.
11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water,
There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD,
Even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel:
Then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.
12 Awake, awake, Deborah:
Awake, awake, utter a song:
Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
13 Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people:
The LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek;
After thee, Benjamin, among thy people;
Out of Machir came down governors,
And out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
Even Issachar, and also Barak:
He was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben
There were great thoughts of heart.
16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the bleatings of the flocks?
For the divisions of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan:
And why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher continued on the sea shore,
And abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death
In the high places of the field.
19 The kings came and fought,
Then fought the kings of Canaan
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven;
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
21 The river of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horsehoofs broken
By the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
23 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof;
Because they came not to the help of the LORD,
To the help of the LORD against the mighty.
24 Blessed above women shall Jael
The wife of Heber the Kenite be,
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked water, and she gave him milk;
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
26 She 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.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down:
At her feet he bowed, he fell:
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 The 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?
29 Her wise ladies answered her,
Yea, she returned answer to herself,
30 Have 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?
31 So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD:
But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.
And the land had rest forty years.
2 and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, 3 and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.
6-8 That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
9-10 But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
11-14 a That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We’re not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we’re on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.
A New Life
14 b-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
21 How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth,
Before the mountains were brought forth, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, YOU are GOD.
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you, and pay attention to all that I have to say. Fill your thoughts with my Words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then, as you unwrap my Words, they will true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. (TPT)
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
6 And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
7 And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.
8 And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.
9 And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you, and pay attention to all that I have to say. Fill your thoughts with my Words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then, as you unwrap my Words, they will true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. (TPT)
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
14 And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.
11 and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
2and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Song of Deborah
1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
2 Praise ye the LORD
For the avenging of Israel,
When the people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes;
I, even I, will sing unto the LORD;
I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir,
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water.
5 The mountains melted from before the LORD,
Even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,
And the travellers walked through byways.
7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel,
Until that I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel,
That offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless ye the LORD.
10 Speak, ye that ride on white asses,
Ye that sit in judgment,
And walk by the way.
11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water,
There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD,
Even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel:
Then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.
12 Awake, awake, Deborah:
Awake, awake, utter a song:
Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
13 Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people:
The LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek;
After thee, Benjamin, among thy people;
Out of Machir came down governors,
And out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
Even Issachar, and also Barak:
He was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben
There were great thoughts of heart.
16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the bleatings of the flocks?
For the divisions of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan:
And why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher continued on the sea shore,
And abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death
In the high places of the field.
19 The kings came and fought,
Then fought the kings of Canaan
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven;
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
21 The river of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horsehoofs broken
By the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
23 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof;
Because they came not to the help of the LORD,
To the help of the LORD against the mighty.
24 Blessed above women shall Jael
The wife of Heber the Kenite be,
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked water, and she gave him milk;
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
26 She 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.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down:
At her feet he bowed, he fell:
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 The 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?
29 Her wise ladies answered her,
Yea, she returned answer to herself,
30 Have 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?
31 So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD:
But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.
And the land had rest forty years.
And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.
to strengthen those crushed by despair who mourn in Zion - to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes, the oil of bliss instead of tears, and the mantle of joyous praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. Because of this, they will be known as Mighty Oaks of Righteousness, planted by YAHWEH as a living display of his glory.
Exalt ye the Lord our God, And worship at his footstool; for He is holy.
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, Fluttereth over her young, Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, Beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him, And there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, That he might eat the increase of the fields; And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock
And now we are brothers and sisters in God's family because of the blood of Jesus, and he welcomes us to come into the most holy sanctuary in the heavenly realm - boldly and without hesitation.
This is the fulfillment of what was prophesied through the prophet Joel, for God says:
'This is what I will do in the last days -I will pour out my Spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will experience dreams from God. The Holy Spirit will come upon all my servants,men and women alike, and they will prophesy.I will reveal startling signs and wonders in the sky above and mighty miracles on the earth below. Blood and fire and pillars of clouds will appear. The sun will be turned dark and the moon blood-red before the great and awesome appearance of the day of the LORD.But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
The Aramaic can be translated "Whoever calls on the name Jesus as the Messiah will receive life."
Jesus put his hands over the man's eyes a second time and made him look up. The man opened his eyes wide and he could see everything perfectly. His eyesight was completely restored!
And now I will break his yoke of bondage from your neck and tear away your shackles of Assyrian oppression.
YEHWEH - God scooped up a lump of soil, sculpted a man, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The man came alive - a living soul! Genesis 2:7
Commentary on Genesis 2:7: "The breath of lives." To breathe into someone's nostrils is what happens when two people kiss. God kissed life into Adam. God's Word likewise is "God-breathed" (2 Tim 3:16). Jesus also blew his breath upon his beloved disciples (see John 20:21:22).
Ezekiel 37:9
"Then YAHWEH said to me, Prophesy to the breath. Yes, Prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, Lord YAHWEH says: Divine breath, come now from the four winds. Breathe on these lifeless bodies, so they can live again."
Instantly, every portion of Adam's being was filled with life as Spirit-Wind poured into the man of clay laying in his Creator's arms. Adam's first sight was looking into the eyes of the Image-Maker. The dust of earth and the breath of Deity mingled as one, so that Adam could interact in both realms (physical and spiritual), This breath or "Spirit of life" was more than air; it brought intelligence, wisdom, light, and the image of God into Adam. (see Job 32:8)
To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.
So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One.
Or "Those who are in Christ Jesus cannot be condemned."
