Deborah the Prophetess A leader who helped Israel
trust the Lord
Deborah was a prophetess, a
faithful Israelite leader who was inspired by the Lord.
Her people had stopped keeping the
Lord’s commandments, and the Canaanites ruled over them.
After twenty years, the Israelites
began to pray for the Lord’s help.
The Lord heard their prayers.
He told Deborah to gather an army
of Israelites to fight against the Canaanites.
The Canaanite army had many
soldiers and chariots.
This made the Israelite army
afraid, but not Deborah.
She knew the Lord would help them.
Barak was the leader of the
Israelite army.
He did not want to fight.
But he thought that if Deborah
went with the army, the Lord would protect them.
Deborah agreed to go.
She prophesied that a woman would
defeat Sisera, the leader of the Canaanite army.
The Israelite army gathered on a
mountain, and the Canaanites gathered in the valley.
Deborah told Barak to go down from
the mountain.
She promised that the Lord would
be with them.
The Lord sent rain, and the
Canaanites’ chariots were swept away in the water.
Many Canaanites were drowned in
the river, but Sisera ran away.
A woman named Jael lived in a tent
nearby.
She saw Sisera running and told
him to hide in her tent.
Jael knew that he was a leader of
the Canaanite army and killed him
so that he couldn’t hurt more
people.
Deborah’s prophecy came true.
Sisera was defeated by a heroic
woman.
Deborah sang a song to help the
Israelites remember how the Lord saved them.
The Israelites kept the
commandments and lived in peace for 40 years.