Devorah and Barak's Battle in Prose and Poetry/0/en

Devorah's Battle in Prose and Poetry

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Introduction

The tale of Devorah and Barak's clash with the Canaanite forces bears the distinction of being the only battle in the entire book of Judges described in both prose (Shofetim 4) and poetry (Shofetim 5).  Despite the difference in genre, the two accounts share much in common and clearly tell the same overall story.  In several instances the chapters supplement each other, each providing details lacking in the other.  In other cases, however, the lyrical retelling diverges significantly from the original narrative, even appearing to contradict its version of events.   

Points of Contrast

There are several points of contrast between the stories.  A summary chart can be found below.

• Praise of Hashem – Devorah's song opens with praise to Hashem and a description of the revelation at Sinai, all of which is lacking from the original account of the battle in Chapter 4.
• Israelite leadership – While Chapter 4 emphasizes the military leadership of Barak,¹  leaving Devorah to fade into the background,² Chapter 5 features Devorah more prominently.³
• Participating tribes – In the prose account, only the tribes of Zevulun and Naftali are mentioned as participating in the battle (4:10). The poetic account, in contrast, speaks also of Ephraim, Binyamin, Menasseh, and Yissakhar (4:14-18).
• Number of soldiers – According to Chapter 4, Barak's army consisted of 10,000 soldiers (4:6,10,14), yet Chapter 5 speaks of 40,000 men (5:8).
• Enemy forces – The only enemies mentioned in the prose version are Yavin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, his general (4:2-3, 23-24). The song, however, includes also the "kings of Canaan" (5:19).
• Location of the battle – Chapter 4 sets Mt. Tavor and Nachal Kishon as the site of the battle (4:13), while Chapter 5 mentions Ta'anakh and Megiddo as well (5:19,21).
• Hashem's role – While the prose account has Hashem causing pandemonium in Sisera's camp ("וַיָּהׇם י"י אֶת סִיסְרָא"), the poem speaks of the stars fighting and the Kishon River sweeping away the enemy (5:20-21).
• Sisera's mother – Devorah's song ends with an image of Sisera's mother worrying about her son's delay home.  No equivalent is found in Chapter 4.

Analysis

Several of the differences listed above can be easily explained via the different genre and purpose of the two narratives.  Since Chapter 5 is a song of thanksgiving said after the victory, it is not surprising that it, rather than Chapter 4, contains praise of Hashem.  Similarly, it is fitting that Chapter 4's prosaic mention of facts such as the enemies' confusion or the death of Sisera are replaced in the poem with literary images such as warring stars and the mourning mother of Sisera.⁴  Many of the other differences, however, are more difficult to explain, as they are not merely poetic flourishes but conflicting facts, incongruous with the description of Chapter 4. Attempts to explain these are discussed below:

I. Different Perspectives –  This approach suggests that the war of Devorah and Barak was much broader than originally assumed and included both a main battle against Sisera, and a series of smaller battles against other Canaanite pockets that were left in the land from the time of the Conquest.⁵ The discrepancies between the two accounts can be explained in light of this double war.  While Chapter 4 looks at the battle through a zoom lens, focusing on only the central battle in Kishon, Chapter 5, in contrast, looks through a wide angle lens, taking in the scope of the entire war:

• Enemy forces – Yavin, the "King of Canaan" ruled over not just one city-state, but rather commanded an entire confederacy of Canaanite armies.⁶  Thus, his general, Sisera, headed the main battle, described in Chapter 4, while the other kings participated in the rest of the war, depicted in the broader poetic account of Chapter 5.
• Israelite Leadership  – Barak knew that his local army was not strong enough to face an entire confederation of Canaanite kings, so he asked Devorah to help him form a counter coalition.⁷  While Barak, from the oppressed tribe of Naftali, led the battle against Sisera in his own territory,⁸ Devorah, from Ephraim,⁹ garnered support from the other central tribes to fight the rest of the Canaanites in their home-region.¹⁰  Chapter 4, which focuses on the main battle, naturally highlights Barak's role, while Chapter 5 which looks at the whole war, vacillates between mention of the two leaders.
• Participating tribes – Chapter 4 mentions only the tribes of Naphtali and Zevulun since it depicts only the Battle of Kishon in the North, which was fought exclusively by these subjugated tribes.  Chapter 5, instead, praises also those tribes who participated in the battles with Devorah in the center of the country.¹¹ 
• Number of soldiers - Though there were only 10,000 soldiers in Barak's army,¹² Devorah praises all the soldiers in the entire coalition, which numbered 40,000.
• Location – It is natural that only Kishon, the site of the main battle, is mentioned in the narrow scoped prose account, while Ta'anakh and Megiddo, the sites of the other skirmishes,¹³ are mentioned in the more sweeping poetic account.

II. Local Harmonization – Many exegetes give local explanations to each of the discrepancies:

• Number of soldiers – Targum Pseudo Jonathon and RashiShofetim 5:8About R. Shelomo Yitzchaki claim that this refers to the number of enemy soldiers,¹⁴ while Radak Shofetim 5:8About R. David Kimchisuggests that the verse is contrasting the present conflict with Yehoshua's Conquest and so the number refers not to Barak's men but to the amount of front line soldiers from Gad and Reuven.¹⁵
• Enemy forces – RadakShofetim 5:19About R. David Kimchi identifies the "kings of Canaan" with Sisera and his men, but does not explain why they are called "kings".  RalbagShofetim 5:19About R. Levi b. Gershom, instead, posits that several other kings of Canaanite origin joined Sisera, hoping to recapture Ta'anakh and Megiddo.
• Location – According to Radak, the enemy forces were so huge that they stretched from Ta'anakh to Megiddo.

 

¹ See 4:15,16, and 22.

² After verse 10, Devorah is only mentioned once.

³ See 4:15,16, and 22. This is not to say that Barak is absent, only that Devorah is equally prominent.

⁴ The nation's travails under enemy rule is similarly pictorialized in the song, with images of roundabout routes and the need for fortifications, while Chapter 4 suffices with matter of fact mention of the oppression.

⁵ Shofetim 1 delineates the cities and territories on the western bank of the Jordan River which remained unconquered by the Israelites.  Some of these, such as Zidon, remained as "thorns" in Israel's side as late as the days of the Monarchy.  Others, such a Yerushalayim, were finally captured in the time of King David.  The bulk of the remainder, i.e., the Canaanite pockets in the tribes of Menasseh, Ephraim, Zevulun, and Naphtali (including Ta'anakh and Megiddo) are never heard from again.  According to this hypothesis, these pockets did not simply disappear of their own accord, but rather were wiped out by the Israelites during this battle against Yavin.  Though only Ta'anakh and Megiddo are mentioned explicitly in the song, they are likely just two examples drawn from many.

⁶ He is described in the verses as "Yavin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Chazor" suggesting that though his own kingdom might have been in Chazor, he had some rulership over the rest of Canaan as well.  In the time of Yehoshua, too, Chazor was the head of the Northern confederacy of kings, as mentioned in Yehoshua 11:10: "כִּי חָצוֹר לְפָנִים הִיא רֹאשׁ כׇּל הַמַּמְלָכוֹת הָאֵלֶּה."

⁷ This explains Barak's enigmatic insistence that he would only go to battle if Devorah joined.  Though several exegetes assume that Barak looked for Devorah to assist in a sipiritual capacity (see, for example, RalbagShofetim 4:8About R. Levi b. Gershom), this position assumes that Devorah was crucial for the success of his military plan. She, being a respected leader and prophetess, and an inhabitant of the central region, had more chances of being able to garner those tribes' support.

⁸ In general, the Book of Judges depicts local battles with the leader always emerging from the oppressed tribe. Thus, it is Barak, from the subjugated Naphtali, who fights this battle.

⁹ See Shofetim 4:5.

¹⁰ While these tribes might have had little vested interest in the specific conflict with Sisera, they did stand to gain immensely from the defeat of the other Canaanite strongholds.

¹¹ The chapter alternates between the two battles, yielding a structure of A-B-A-B-A-B.  First, Devorah is summoned to battle, "Awaken, awaken Devorah" (5:12) and then Barak, "Barak, stand..." (5:12).  Verses 14-17 praise those tribes who participated in the battle with Devorah (Ephraim, Binyamin, Menasseh, Zevulun, and Yissakhar) while verse 18, in turn, lists those who fought with Barak (Naphtali and Zevulun]).  Finally, verse 19 mentions the clashes with the entire Canaanite coalition - "then battled the kings of Canaan at Ta'anakh, by the waters of Megiddo" while verses 20-21 follow with details regarding the specific confrontation of Barak and Sisera at Nahal Kishon.

¹² These were drawn drawn exclusively from Zevulun and Naphtali as per Shofetim 4:6.

¹³ It is likely that these are just two examples of such battles, and that really Devorah's forces fought against most of the remaining Canaanite strongholds that are mentioned in Shofetim 1.

¹⁴ This is a difficult reading and requires Rashi to both invert the order and add words into the original verse so that it reads "מָגֵן אִם יֵרָאֶה וָרֹמַח בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל [שנחלמים] בְּאַרְבָּעִים אֶלֶף".

¹⁵ He suggests that the verse is contrasting the fate of the people who worship idols who find themselves in war, with those loyal to Hashem who did not even need weapons when at war since Hashem fought for them.