Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abino-am on that day: Then renders the Hebrew waw conjunction. This connector, along with the phrase, on that day, could give the impression that as soon as the battle was won, Deborah and Barak broke into song. This is not very likely, however. Certainly some time elapsed, with people returning home. Then some time later, a celebration was probably held. Most versions leave out the conjunction Then, but keep on that day. Contemporary English Version provides a little more background by beginning with “After the battle was over that day….”

Sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abino-am follows the Hebrew word order. Deborah still takes the lead here, since the Hebrew verb for sang has a feminine singular prefix, so it is literally “And she sang Deborah and Barak….” The name of Barak the son of Abino-am seems to be added as an afterthought. Certainly it was not just Deborah and Barak who sang, but the whole community. However, most languages will rather say “Deborah and Barak, son of Abinoam, sang.”

Sang renders the common word for singing in Hebrew (shir). It is found, for example, in the title of Song of Songs. In some languages it will also be necessary to add an object by saying “sang this song.” This was a victory song following an important battle, and many languages will have a special term that can be used here.

For Barak the son of Abino-am, see verse 4.6. In praise songs around the world, the ancestry of the heroes is particularly important. Thus this specification should not be omitted in translation.

On that day is the phrase that links the narrative version (verse 4.1-24) to the poetic one (verse 5.2-31a Revised Standard Version). As noted before, the word day often has a broad meaning, and so on that day can be expressed as “at that time.” This phrase should be rendered in the same way as was done in verse 4.23 in order to preserve the literary link. In many languages it will be more natural for this time clause to appear at the beginning rather than at the end of the sentence, as in Good News Translation and Revised English Bible.

At the end of this verse the Hebrew text has a speech formula (lemor, literally “to say”) to introduce the direct speech of the poem, but Revised Standard Version omits it. New Revised Standard Version renders this formula as “saying,” but New Jerusalem Bible gives a more natural equivalent: “and the words were.” Many languages will want to use a quote formula here. In some cases this will be simply “They said.” Another possibility might be to render the whole verse as “Here is the song Deborah and Barak sang on that day:….” Other possibilities are:

• On that day Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang this song. They said:….

• Here is the victory song Deborah and Barak sang on that day/occasion:….

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .