This first chapter of Part IV considers the structure of the book of Judges, its place within the wider national narrative of Genesis-Kings, and compositional issues and emphases in the prose version of the account of Deborah and Barak. It demonstrates that conventional approaches that distinguish between an older source and its later integration into the narrative are deficient inasmuch as the first iteration of the account appears to have been much more succinct and may have been composed as an early addendum to the exodus-conquest narrative. The account grew dramatically as scribes downplayed the role of Deborah’s general by attributing the crowning feat to a woman who lived on the margins of Israelite society.

This second chapter of Part IV explores the composition of the Song of Deborah. Most scholars today deem the song to be a very ancient, if not the most ancient, exemplar of Israelite poetry. According to this view, the prose version that precedes the song was composed centuries later in order to provide a more straightforward narration of the battle. This chapter demonstrates that the song originally consisted of a generic hymn to the divine warrior, similar to many other biblical exemplars. Before later scribes incorporated it in their narrative, and augmented it with new lines, it had nothing to do with Deborah, Barak, or Jael. The chapter shows not only how scribes transformed an older hymn into this impressive war monument but also why they did so.

This final chapter of Part IV treats Jael’s representative role as a member of the Kenites. While a number of biblical texts identify this group as the nation’s enemies, others depict a special relationship between them and Israel. The chapter’s guiding question is: What does the case of the Kenites reveal paradigmatically about Israel’s ethnogenesis and the formation of biblical literature

This fourth chapter of Part IV turns to the gender of wartime contributions. A common cultural construction draws a sharp distinction between men who leave their families to go to fight and women who wait for their men to return. As demonstrated in this chapter, the Song of Deborah and the prose account that precedes it do not partake in the gender polarity that informs the cultural productions of so many societies, modern and ancient. By subverting the status quo and repudiating the conventions of male heroism, they do much the opposite. In addition, the investigation reveals that women, although rarely having opportunities to take up arms in defense of their communities, played a central role in war commemoration as “memory makers.”