Single lesson
The Song of Deborah and Barak
Judges 5:1–31
This lesson helps students read Judges 5 as a song with a clear shape. They will notice who speaks, how the poem uses strong images, and how praise, warning and hope work together in the chapter.
Before you teach
Judges 5 opens by saying Deborah and Barak sang on that day. The song praises Yahweh, remembers unsafe conditions in Israel, names tribes that came or stayed back, describes the defeat of Sisera in poetic language, and ends with a closing prayer and rest in the land.
Students will be able to trace the movement of Judges 5 and explain how its images praise Yahweh, remember help given, and warn against refusing to join the struggle.
Welcome: What kind of text is this song?
5 minIntroduce the passage as a song, not a battle report. Ask students to listen for repeated words, named people and changing scenes. Read Judges 5:1-3 aloud and identify the speakers, Deborah and Barak, and the main action of the opening, which is singing praise to Yahweh before kings and princes.
Judges 5:1, Judges 5:2, Judges 5:3
Read and explain: Praise, trouble and willing leaders
9 minRead Judges 5:4-11. Explain that the song first uses large images of trembling earth, rain and quaking mountains to speak about Yahweh’s presence. Then it remembers fearful travel, empty roads and lack of weapons, before returning to praise for leaders and people who offered themselves willingly.
Judges 5:4, Judges 5:5, Judges 5:6, Judges 5:7, Judges 5:8, Judges 5:9, Judges 5:10, Judges 5:11
Discuss: Who joined and who stayed back?
8 minRead Judges 5:12-18. Have students list the groups named positively and the groups questioned or criticised. Discuss how the poem honours action and exposes hesitation. Point out that the song uses direct address such as “Awake” and “Why did you sit”, which makes the hearer feel the urgency of the moment.
Judges 5:12, Judges 5:13, Judges 5:14, Judges 5:15, Judges 5:16, Judges 5:17, Judges 5:18
Make or respond: Image card for the song’s movement
11 minStudents create a four-panel image card showing the movement of the poem: praise to Yahweh, unsafe conditions in Israel, tribes responding differently, and the final prayer for God’s enemies and those who love him. Encourage them to add one short phrase from the text to each panel and keep the violent parts described soberly rather than graphically.
Judges 5:3, Judges 5:6, Judges 5:16, Judges 5:17, Judges 5:20, Judges 5:21, Judges 5:31
Closing: The ending prayer and rest
7 minRead Judges 5:19-31, summarising the middle carefully as war poetry that celebrates Sisera’s defeat and blesses Jael. Note that the song closes with a prayer that Yahweh’s enemies perish and those who love him shine like the rising sun. Finish by noticing the final result: the land had rest forty years.
Judges 5:19, Judges 5:20, Judges 5:21, Judges 5:23, Judges 5:24, Judges 5:28, Judges 5:30, Judges 5:31
Questions to explore
How does the opening of the song show both who is speaking and who is being addressed?
Look at the names in the introduction and the commands to “Hear” and “Give ear”, then note who receives the praise in the same lines.
Judges 5:1, Judges 5:3
What details show that life in Israel had become unsafe before the song celebrates deliverance?
Use the lines about abandoned highways, travellers using side roads, and the question about missing shields and spears.
Judges 5:6, Judges 5:8
What contrast does the song make between those who responded and those who held back?
Compare the tribes and leaders who came down or risked their lives with the groups asked why they stayed where they were.
Judges 5:14, Judges 5:15, Judges 5:17, Judges 5:18
Make, think or respond
Four-Panel Song Image Card
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils
- coloured pencils or markers
- Bible text
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into four panels.
- Label the panels: Praise, Trouble, Response, Prayer.
- In each panel, draw one image from the song and write a short matching phrase from the passage.
- Share the card with a partner and explain how the poem moves from beginning to end.
This activity helps students trace the structure and images of Judges 5 instead of treating the chapter as a flat list of details.
Adapt for your group
- For younger or less confident readers, pre-select four verses for the four panels: Judges 5:3, Judges 5:6, Judges 5:18 and Judges 5:31.
- For stronger readers, ask them to add notes about repeated words such as “awake”, “bless”, “why”, or “fought”, and explain how those repetitions shape the poem.
An optional closing prayer
Proposed words: Lord God, help us listen carefully to your word, notice what this song praises, and respond to you with honesty, courage and thanks.
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Judges 5
1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,
2 “Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh!
3 “Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, even I, will sing to Yahweh. I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
4 “Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water.
5 The mountains quaked at Yahweh’s presence, even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
6 “In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways.
7 The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless Yahweh!
10 “Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.
11 Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse Yahweh’s righteous acts, the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. “Then Yahweh’s people went down to the gates.
12 ‘Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.’
13 “Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down. Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.
14 Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir. Those who handle the marshal’s staff came out of Zebulun.
15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart.
16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks.
18 Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the death; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.
19 “The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver.
20 From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera.
21 The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength.
22 Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancing, the prancing of their strong ones.
23 ‘Curse Meroz,’ said Yahweh’s angel. ‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn’t come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh against the mighty.’
24 “Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
26 She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 “Through the window she looked out, and cried: Sisera’s mother looked through the lattice. ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?’
29 Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself,
30 ‘Have they not found, have they not divided the plunder? A lady, two ladies to every man; to Sisera a plunder of dyed garments, a plunder of dyed garments embroidered, of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the plunder?’
31 “So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.