_Municipal Corporations and County Councils._--These bodies are authorized to borrow for their proper purposes on debentures and debenture stock with the sanction of the Local Government Board. See the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, the Local Authorities' Loans Act 1875, and the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888.
_United States._--In the United States there are two meanings of debenture--(1) a bond not secured by mortgage; (2) a certificate that the United States is indebted to a certain person or his assigns in a certain sum on an audited account, or that it will refund a certain sum paid for duties on imported goods, in case they are subsequently exported.
AUTHORITIES.--E. Manson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd ed., 1908); Simonson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd ed., 1902); Palmer, _Company Precedents (Debentures)_ (3rd ed., London, 1907). (E. Ma.)
DEBORAH (Heb. for "bee"), the Israelite heroine in the Bible through whose encouragement the Hebrews defeated the Canaanites under Sisera. The account is preserved in Judges iv.-v., and the ode of victory (chap. v.), known as the "Song of Deborah," is held to be one of the oldest surviving specimens of Hebrew literature. Although the text of this _Te Deum_ has suffered (especially in vv. 8-15) its value is without an equal for its historical contents. It is not certain that the poem was actually composed by Deborah (v. 1); ver. 7, which can be rendered "until _thou_ didst arise, O Deborah," is indecisive. The poem consists of a series of rapidly shifting scenes; the words are often obscure, but the general drift of the whole can be easily followed. After the exordium, the writer describes the approach of Yahweh from his seats in Seir and Edom in the south to the help of his people--the language is reminiscent of Ps. lxviii. 7 sqq., Hab. iii. 3 seq. 12 seq. In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath the land had been insecure, the people were disarmed, and neither shield nor spear was to be seen among their forty thousand (cf. 1 Sam. xiii. 19-22, and for the number Josh. iv. 13). Then follows, apparently, a summons to magnify Yahweh. After an apostrophe to Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, the meeting of the clans is vividly portrayed. Ephraim, with Benjamin behind him (for the wording, cf. Hos. v. 8), Machir (here the tribe of Manasseh) and Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali, pour down into the valley of the Kishon. Not all the tribes were represented. Reuben was wavering, Gilead (i.e. Gad) remained beyond the Jordan, and Dan's interests were apparently with the sea-going Phoenicians (see DAN); their conduct is contrasted with the reckless bravery of Zebulun and Naphtali. Judah is nowhere mentioned; it lay outside the confederation. The Canaanite kings unite at Taanach by Megiddo, an ancient battlefield probably to be identified with Lejjun. The heavens joined the fight against Sisera (cf. the appeal in Josh. x. 12 seq.), a storm rages, and the enemy are swept away in the flood. Meroz, presumably on the line of flight, is bitterly cursed for its inaction: "they came not to the help of Yahweh." In vivid contrast to this is the conduct of one of the Kenites: "blessed of all women is Jael, of all the nomad women is she blessed." The poem recounts how the fleeing king craves water, she gives him milk, and (as he drinks) she fells him (perhaps with a tent-peg); "at her feet he sank down, he fell, he lay, where he sank he lay overcome." The last scene paints the mother of Sisera impatiently awaiting the king. Her attendants confidently picture him dividing the booty--a maiden or two for each man, and richly embroidered cloth for himself. With inimitable strength the poet suddenly drops the curtain--"so perish thine enemies, all of them, Yahweh! But let them that love him be as the sun when it rises in its might."