Judges 5

New International Version

The Song of Deborah

5 On that day Deborah^(A) and Barak son of Abinoam^(B) sang this song:^(C)

²“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer^(D) themselves—
praise the Lord!^(E)

³“Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I, even I, will sing to^[a] the Lord;^(F)
I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.^(G)

⁴“When you, Lord, went out^(H) from Seir,^(I)
    when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook,^(J) the heavens poured,
    the clouds poured down water.^(K)
⁵The mountains quaked^(L) before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
    before the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,^(M)
    in the days of Jael,^(N) the highways^(O) were abandoned;
    travelers took to winding paths.^(P)
⁷Villagers in Israel would not fight;
    they held back until I, Deborah,^(Q) arose,
    until I arose, a mother in Israel.
⁸God chose new leaders^(R)
    when war came to the city gates,^(S)
but not a shield or spear^(T) was seen
    among forty thousand in Israel.
⁹My heart is with Israel’s princes,
    with the willing volunteers^(U) among the people.
    Praise the Lord!

¹⁰“You who ride on white donkeys,^(V)
    sitting on your saddle blankets,
    and you who walk along the road,
consider ¹¹the voice of the singers^[b] at the watering places.
    They recite the victories^(W) of the Lord,
    the victories of his villagers in Israel.

“Then the people of the Lord
    went down to the city gates.^(X)
¹²‘Wake up,^(Y) wake up, Deborah!^(Z)
    Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, Barak!^(AA)
    Take captive your captives,^(AB) son of Abinoam.’

¹³“The remnant of the nobles came down;
    the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
¹⁴Some came from Ephraim,^(AC) whose roots were in Amalek;^(AD)
    Benjamin^(AE) was with the people who followed you.
From Makir^(AF) captains came down,
    from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s^[c] staff.
¹⁵The princes of Issachar^(AG) were with Deborah;^(AH)
    yes, Issachar was with Barak,^(AI)
    sent under his command into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
¹⁶Why did you stay among the sheep pens^[d]^(AJ)
    to hear the whistling for the flocks?^(AK)
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
¹⁷Gilead^(AL) stayed beyond the Jordan.
    And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher^(AM) remained on the coast^(AN)
    and stayed in his coves.
¹⁸The people of Zebulun^(AO) risked their very lives;
    so did Naphtali^(AP) on the terraced fields.^(AQ)

¹⁹“Kings came^(AR), they fought,
    the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo,^(AS)
    they took no plunder of silver.^(AT)
²⁰From the heavens^(AU) the stars fought,
    from their courses they fought against Sisera.
²¹The river Kishon^(AV) swept them away,
    the age-old river, the river Kishon.
    March on, my soul; be strong!^(AW)
²²Then thundered the horses’ hooves—
    galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.^(AX)
²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord.
    ‘Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
    to help the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed of women^(AY) be Jael,^(AZ)
    the wife of Heber the Kenite,^(BA)
    most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
²⁵He asked for water, and she gave him milk;^(BB)
    in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
²⁶Her hand reached for the tent peg,
    her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
    she shattered and pierced his temple.^(BC)
²⁷At her feet he sank,
    he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
    where he sank, there he fell—dead^(BD).

²⁸“Through the window^(BE) peered Sisera’s mother;
    behind the lattice she cried out,^(BF)
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
    Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
²⁹The wisest of her ladies answer her;
    indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:^(BG)
    a woman or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
    colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments^(BH) for my neck—
    all this as plunder?^(BI)’

³¹“So may all your enemies perish,^(BJ) Lord!
But may all who love you be like the sun^(BK)
when it rises in its strength.”^(BL)

Then the land had peace^(BM) forty years.

Footnotes

Judges 5:3 Or of
Judges 5:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Judges 5:14 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Judges 5:16 Or the campfires; or the saddlebags

Acts 17

New International Version

In Thessalonica

17 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,^(A) where there was a Jewish synagogue. ²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue,^(B) and on three Sabbath^(C) days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,^(D) ³explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer^(E) and rise from the dead.^(F) “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,”^(G) he said. ⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,^(H) as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

⁵But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.^(I) They rushed to Jason’s^(J) house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.^[a] ⁶But when they did not find them, they dragged^(K) Jason and some other believers^(L) before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world^(M) have now come here,^(N) ⁷and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”^(O) ⁸When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. ⁹Then they made Jason^(P) and the others post bond and let them go.

In Berea

¹⁰As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas^(Q) away to Berea.^(R) On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.^(S) ¹¹Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica,^(T) for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures^(U) every day to see if what Paul said was true.^(V) ¹²As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.^(W)

¹³But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,^(X) some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. ¹⁴The believers^(Y) immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas^(Z) and Timothy^(AA) stayed at Berea. ¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens^(AB) and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.^(AC)

In Athens

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue^(AD) with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news^(AE) about Jesus and the resurrection.^(AF) ¹⁹Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus,^(AG) where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching^(AH) is that you are presenting? ²⁰You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” ²¹(All the Athenians^(AI) and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

²²Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus^(AJ) and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.^(AK) ²³For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship^(AL)—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴“The God who made the world and everything in it^(AM) is the Lord of heaven and earth^(AN) and does not live in temples built by human hands.^(AO) ²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.^(AP) ²⁶From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.^(AQ) ²⁷God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.^(AR) ²⁸‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^[b]^(AS) As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^[c]

²⁹“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.^(AT) ³⁰In the past God overlooked^(AU) such ignorance,^(AV) but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.^(AW) ³¹For he has set a day when he will judge^(AX) the world with justice^(AY) by the man he has appointed.^(AZ) He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”^(BA)

³²When they heard about the resurrection of the dead,^(BB) some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” ³³At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus,^(BC) also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.