"They took no booty of silver, For from heaven the very stars fought, From their courses they fought against Sisera. The brook Kishon swept them away, That ancient brook, the brook Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength! Then did their horse hoofs pound With the gallop, gallop of steeds. "Blessed above women shall Jael be, That wife of Heber, the Kenite, More blessed than all nomad women! Water he asked, milk she gave, Curdled milk she brought him In a bowl well fitted for lords! She put her hand to the tent-pin, Her right hand to the workman's hammer. She struck Sisera, crushing his head, She shattered, she pierced his temples. At her feet he sank down and lay still, At her feet he sank, he fell; There he fell, a victim slain! "Through the window she peered and cried, Through the lattice, the mother of Sisera: 'Why so long his chariot in coming? Why tarry the hoof-beats of steeds?' Then the wisest of her ladies replied, She herself also answered her question, 'Are they not dividing the spoil? A woman or two for each warrior, For Sisera a spoil of dyed stuffs, A spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered, Some pieces of lace for his neck?' "So perish thy foes, O Jehovah! But may those who love him be as the sun, Rising up in invincible splendor!" GIDEON'S BRAVE BAND In course of time the Midianites conquered the Israelites. To escape them the Israelites made for themselves dens in the mountains and caves and strongholds. When the Israelites had sown their crops, the Midianites would come up and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass; for they came up with their cattle and their tents. The Israelites were so robbed by the Midianites, that they cried to Jehovah for help. Then the angel of Jehovah came and sat down under the oak which was in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezerite; and his son, Gideon, was beating out wheat in the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of Jehovah appeared to him and said, "Jehovah is with you, able warrior!" Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if Jehovah is with us, why then has all this overtaken us? Where are all his wonderful acts of which our fathers told us, saying, 'Did not Jehovah bring us from Egypt?' But now Jehovah has cast us off and given us into the power of the Midianites."