"Awake, awake, Deborah, Awake, awake, utter a song." Deborah comes at the call of distress. The people are rapidly marshalled to her help. But some hold back: "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, To hear the bleatings of the flocks? ......................................... Gilead abode beyond Jordan And why did Dan remain in ships?" The battle is joined. Canaan is worsted before the followers of the woman of the hour. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The river Kishon swept them away, That ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength." Then, turning upon the indifferent and laggard hosts that held back and refused to strike the blow for liberty, the poetess exclaims: "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." Concerning the woman whose unfailing hand had struck the fatal blow, the poetess sings: "Blessed above women shall Jael be, The wife of Heber the Kenite. Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. "He asked water And she gave him milk, She brought forth butter in a lordly dish." The tent pin has pierced the temples of the oppressor of Israel: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down, At her feet he bowed, he fell, When he bowed, he fell down--dead." Very dramatic do the lines become when, imagining the mother of Sisera waiting for her son to return victorious from the battle, and looking out through the lattice of her dwelling wondering at his long delay, she asks: "Why is his chariot so long in coming, Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" But Sisera never returns to his maternal roof. For forty years did the people enjoy the freedom of Deborah's deliverance, the woman whose influence went out from "the sanctuary of the palm." It is said of this period, commonly known as the Age of the Judges, that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This would be known in political theory as well as in practical government as nothing short of anarchy. And indeed, it was, for while each man did that which was right in his own eyes, the "right" of each was so frequently wrong, that social chaos reigned with almost unbroken sway. And while one woman of the period became a deliverer for four decades, for more than a century many women suffered untold misery for lack of unity among the tribes and leaders capable of bringing the life of the reign to rights.