Deborah’s New Song: The Historical Résumé in lab 32:1-11 in Context

Abstract

An extra-biblical historical résumé, Deborah’s “new” song in lab 32:1-11 demonstrates both the continued use of the conventions of its biblical antecedents and the development of this literary form during the Second Temple period. It commences its review with Abraham, draws a number of devices from biblical résumés to unite the various episodes, alludes to various biblical reviews, and exhibits various thematic affinities with biblical literary models. While its incorporation of episodes into its retelling of Israelite history that do not appear in any of the biblical summaries and use of the scenaric style of the biblical story rather than the third-person brief report typical of biblical historical summaries are typical of Second Temple résumés, the full sequence of lab 32:1-11 has no parallel in Second Temple Jewish or Christian writings, thereby revealing the author’s guiding tenet—namely, that God fulfils the covenant by aiding His people throughout history.