Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions:
One-sentence summary: Israel forgets the Lord and goes into captivity, and the Lord hears their cries and sends them a deliverer... again and again.
The Lord leaves nations in Canaan in order to test Israel, so that they "may be taught to know war" (the Philistines and some other Canaanites), and so that He would know whether they would obey Him. So Israel dwells with them in the land and intermarries with them and serves their gods (I guess they didn't think God was serious in His warnings.) They did evil in God's sight and forget him and serve Baal and Asherah, so the Lord is angry and sells them to the king of Mesopotamia, whom they serve for eight years. Then, they cry out, and the Lord raises up a deliverer, Caleb's younger brother, as a judge, and he goes to war against the king and prevails. So the land has rest for 40 years. However, after the judge dies, Israel does evil again, and the Lord strengthens the king of Moab against them, and they defeat Israel, and they serve him 18 years. When they cry out again, the Lord raises up another deliverer for them (who is described curiously as a "left-handed man.") This man, Ehud, makes a dagger and fastens it under his right thigh and brings a tribute to the king of Moab, who is very fat. He tells the king he has a secret message for him so that all the king's attendants leave his room. Ehud says the message is from God and then takes the dagger in his left hand from his right thigh and thrusts the whole thing into the king's belly and leaves it there. He escapes and shuts and locks the doors behind him. When the king's servants come to look and see the door locked, they wait a very long time. Then, they finally take the key and open it and see their king dead, but by this time, Ehud has escaped. He blows the trumpets in the mountains of Ephraim, and Israel comes down from the mountain, and he leads them. He tells them to follow him "for the Lord has delivered the Moabites into [their] hands." And they kill about 10,000 "men of valor" of Moab, and Moab is defeated, and the land has rest for 80 years. It also says that another judge kills many Philistines and delivers Israel.
When Ehud dies, Israel does evil again, so the Lord sells them to the king of Canaan. A man named Sisera is the commander of his army. They are oppressed for 20 years, and they cry out to the Lord. Deborah, a prophetess is judging Israel at this time, and it says that she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah, and Israel would go to her for judgement. She calls for a man named Barak and tells him to take 10,00 men from two tribes, and she says she will deploy Sisera to them and deliver him into their hands. Barak says he will go only if she goes. She answers that she will go, but that there will be "no glory for him in the journey" because "Sisera will be delivered into the hands of a woman." So they go together with 10,000 men. A descendant of Moses's father-in-law had separated from the Kenites and pitched his tent by the terebinth tree. Sisera gathers his 900 chariots of iron and all his men, and Deborah tells Barak that the Lord has delivered Sisera into his hands that day. So they go down Mt. Tabor, and the Lord kills them. Sisera runs on foot, but Barak pursues him. He hides in a woman's tent (of one of the people who had peace with his people), a woman named Jael, and he tells her to stand at the door and watch, but she takes a tent peg and drives it into his head when he is sleeping. Then, she goes out to meet Barak when he arrives looking for Sisera, and she shows him the man lying dead. So the Lord subdues them, and it says that Israel's hand grows stronger and stronger against the king of Canaan until they destroy him.
Deborah and Barak sing a song to bless the Lord, and the land has rest for 40 years.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
A beautiful line comes at the end of Deborah's song: "Let those who love [the Lord] be like the sun when it comes out at full strength" (Proverbs 4:8).
The Lord will use whoever is available.