Judges is made up of the "adventures of the judges." During this time, a judge was someone who helped settled disputes and confounded Israel's enemies. One of the judges was Deborah. "After the stage-setting words, Deborah is introduced as a prophet who judged Israel in Ephraim. She was obviously a respected leader. In the mode of a prophet, she delivered an oracle (a message from God) to Barak commanding him to organize troops from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight Sisera on Mount Tabor" (Bandastra). Sisera and his army are being defeated, so Sisera seeks out Jael. Jael tricks Sisera, and kills him by driving a stake through his head.
After the defeat of Sisera, there is a song of victory called the Song of Deborah. You can read its full text here. According to Bandastra, this poem is one of the oldest texts in the Old Testament. It was most likely written very near to the time of the actual event.
Using Dr. Lester's source analysis sheet, I will seek to better understand the Israelite society from this bit of prose.
Name of Document: Song of Deborah
Origin and Purpose (Who wrote, and why?): Someone who wanted the people to know the victory God had over Sisera and his army wrote this song to teach the people about what happened, and show gratitude to YHWH.
Date of Document (Primary or Secondary source?): According to the little bit of background knowledge and the timeline found in our weekly readings, we know this poem was written somewhere around 1200 BCE. We know the Deuteronomist edited Judges because the stories in it follows the same sin>punishment>repentance>deliverance cycle.
Type/Genre of Document: Poetry
Author (or likely author) of Document: An educated leader from 1200 BCE who was a part of Deborah's tribe?
Does this source show bias? Are there other points of view? If so, how? There is a bias toward the tribes that participated in the battle with Deborah and Barak. The poem lists out where the other tribes were, and some of them are cursed.
“Curse Meroz,” says the Lord’s messenger,It also is biased toward the Israelites. I would like to hear this story from the perspective of Sisera's army. I would also love to hear this from the perspective of Jael. We get a second hand account of what happened with her.
“curse its inhabitants bitterly,
because they didn’t come to the Lord’s aid,
to the Lord’s aid against the warriors.”
We also get a glimpse at Sisera's mother's reaction to his lateness. I thought that was very interesting.
Value of Source: It's the oldest text in the Old Testament. It's got to be pretty valuable. It also gives us clues about the relationships between the tribes, and describes the leadership of women during this time.
What important facts can I learn from this document? We learn that the tribes were not a unified group. Each tribe was free to make decisions about what they thought was best for their individual groups. We also learn that women were given leadership roles (at least in the tribe Deborah was a part of). We learn that the people view any victories or defeats as an act of God's love or punishment based on the actions of the people.
What inferences can I make from this document (in combination with other knowledge I have of historical period etc)? I can infer that music was an important way of teaching history for the Israelites. I can infer that Jael was a little violent, but that her people viewed Sisera as a real threat.
Overall, what is the main idea of this document? When we are faithful to God, God will deliver us, just as God delivered Deborah, Barak, and Jael from Sisera.
Looking at the poem from this perspective, without my New Interpreters Bible, was definitely an adventure. I like the girl power featured in it.
Thank you for your post! I'm glad to see some examples of using the "Source Analysis" sheet. I was a little intimidated by doing the Poetry Make (puh-lease, I have a Masters in English Education and I still shy away from poetry!). Anyhow, I really like that you gave some background information about the text before digging into it. Isn't it interesting that the Song of Deborah is so old?!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great use of the analysis sheet. I went a little off the grid in writing my blog using this tool I also keyed into Bandstra's "the Israelites are cowering in the forest, hiding in the hills". I didn't pick up on the biased toward the Israelites and appreciated your comment "I would like to hear this story from the perspective of Sisera's army". This makes me think about the biased in our own US history and how history is typically written by the victor. Reminds me to look for the "Truth" of the text without looking for it to be infallible and true.
ReplyDeleteI should read your blog before writing my own. I always learn something!
I agree with Lisa about being careful about a bias in our own histories. This goes double when it comes to Biblical history elsewhere. As we have discussed throughout this semester, the OT is predominantly about the nation of Israel and it's relationship with Yahweh. There isn't much perspective from other narratives in history. There is no doubt that others have something to teach us and no nation, group, army or people are all good or all evil, so there is room to hear the what's and why's of more people. I also liked how succinctly but clearly you used the "source analysis" sheet. It's a great tool for finding context and making it accessible to a larger group.
DeleteI enjoyed reading and learning from your post, as I picked the other option this week and didn't delve into The Song of Deborah as much as I would have liked. I too am awed by the "ancientness" of this text and the fact I believe our text brought out that the biblical editors felt the same and left it intact. The text from Judges for this week also talks about the role of women, but not as leaders. Their lowly state in tribal Israel contrasts to the strong qualities recorded in this older text. We haven't gotten back to Adam and Eve in the garden yet, but you can see the original image of woman and her role in society really changed, and not for the better. Maybe getting back to the way God created woman would be good news to the women in ancient Israel and in many parts of the world today.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your analysis and was also intrigued with some of the same perspectives as you. With so much of the Bible representing women as property and in a poor light, it's great to see a positive female leader - "girl power" as you mentioned - and considering it's in the same book as the concubine story, it's even more pleasantly surprising! Additionally, I've become intrigued with stories that are told from a non-traditional perspective and would love to hear this story from the other side's perspective.
ReplyDelete