Song of Deborah as Polemic 1. The Song of Deborah: A Victory Song? The Song of Deborah in Judg 5 has often been compared to the Song of Moses in Exod 15. This is partly because both songs have traditionally been considered among the most ancient poems in the Old Testament (1), and partly because both share certain similarities in context and subject matter. Regarding the similarities they share, it has been pointed out, for example, that both songs are narrative poems that appear immediately after a parallel prose account of the same events. Also, in the respective introductory sections, not only are the respective singers identified, the line “I will sing to YHWH” also appears early in both songs (Exod 15,1; Judg 5,3). Moreover, it has also been noted that water imagery is used in the description of both victories. In connection with this, Hauser further argues that this presence of water imagery is not merely due to the fact that water happened to play a significant role in both victories, but in both cases, the motif was similarly used to emphasise the power of YHWH over the enemy (2). Finally, both songs also seem to contain scenes in which the enemy’s self-confidence is mocked. In Exod 15,9, the boasting of the enemy is reported even as their destruction is being recounted, while in Judg 5,28-30, the imaginary boasts of Sisera’s naïve mother and her ladies are also presented even as Sisera’s violent death is being graphically described. In fact, in both cases, the boasting of the enemy is quoted directly to further heighten the irony. (1) For the antiquity of the Song of Deborah, see, for example, W.F. ALBRIGHT, “The Earliest Forms of Hebrew Verse”, JPOS 2 (1922) 69-86; D.A. ROBERTSON, Linguistic Evidence in Dating Early Hebrew Poetry (Missoula 1972) 31-34, 148- 150, 153-155; A. GLOBE, “The Literary Structure and Unity of the Song of Deborah”, JBL 93 (1974) 509-512. Alternative dating will be discussed briefly at the end of this article. As for the Song of Moses, although it is also traditionally dated early, as E. ZENGER, “Tradition und Interpretation in Exodus XV 1-21”, Congress Volume, Vienna, 1980 (ed. J.A. EMERTON) (Leiden 1981) 456-458, points out, scholarly opinion ranges from the 13th to the 5th Century BCE. (2) A.J. HAUSER, “Two Songs of Victory: A Comparison of Exodus 15 and Judges 5”, Directions in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (ed. E.R. FOLLIS) (JSOTSS 40; Sheffield 1987) 270-273.