The Battle of Mount Tabor occurred in 1285 BC when the Israelite army, led by the general Barak and the prophetess Deborah, defeated the army of King Jabin II of Hazor and delivered Israel from oppression.
After eighty years of peace following Ehud's victory at the Battle of Mount Ephraim and Shamgar's killing of 800 Philistines with an ox-goad, the Israelites reverted to sinning, causing God to sell them into the hand of King Jabin of Hazor. The Israelites called out for help, as Jabin's general Sisera had 900 chariots of iron and oppressed the Israelites cruelly for 20 years. The prophetess Deborah summoned the general Barak to assemble 10,000 troops at Mount Tabor, while she would draw out Sisera to meet him by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and troops. Barak persuaded Deborah to go with him, but she warned Barak that the glory of victory would not go to him, but to a woman. The 10,000 warriors of the Tribe of Zebulun and Tribe of Naphtali went up behind Barak, while Sisera led his 900 chariots and 40,000 troops from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Wadi Kishon. When battle was met, a rainstorm bogged down the Canaanite chariots, and the Israelites charged downhill and routed their foes. Sisera fled on foot, while Barak pursued the army to Harosheth-ha-goiim and left no survivors. Sisera found refuge in the tent of the Jewish woman Yael, who offered him hospitality before hammering a tent peg into his skull as he rested from his retreat. As B arak came in pursuit of Sisera, Yael met the general and displayed the body of Sisera. King Jabin was subdued, and the hand of the Israelites bore harder and harder on Jabin until the king was destroyed. The Israelites commemorated their victory with the "Song of Deborah".