Song of Deborah as Polemic 7 A. Roll Call of tribes that participated in the campaign (vv. 14-15a). B. Roll Call of tribes that did not participate (vv. 15b-17). A’. Praise for tribes that have shown special valour in their participation (v. 18). This chiastic arrangement that places the non-participating tribes at the structural centre of the stanza seems designed to draw attention to the non-participants, thus suggesting again that a significant rhetorical purpose of the song may be to present a polemic against non- participation (18). Otherwise, for a song written primarily to celebrate a victory, one would expect the focus to be only on those who contributed to that victory and not on those who did not. Fourth, this surprising attention on non-participation continues in v. 23, where the city of Meroz is cursed for its refusal to help in YHWH’s cause. Interestingly, this is followed by a pronouncement of blessing on Jael in v. 24. Here, the fact that Meroz is twice cursed (rra) while Jael is twice referred to as blessed (˚rb) seems to suggest that the two are intentionally juxtaposed for contrast (19). Moreover, since the pronouncement of blessing on Jael is immediately followed in vv. 25- 27 by an account of how she managed to kill Sisera, while the pronouncement of curses on Meroz is explicitly said to be due to its refusal to help, it is highly likely that the curse and the corresponding blessing are intended to represent respectively the consequence of non- participation and the reward for participation. If so, not only does this continue the theme of participation versus non-participation introduced in vv. 14-18, the very juxtaposition of the curse and blessing also seems designed to further reinforce the polemic already introduced against non-participation. Finally, even the placement and description of the actual battle in vv. 19-22 seem oriented towards a further development of the theme “participation versus non-participation”. For not only is vv. 19-22 sandwiched between two sections (vv. 14-18 and vv. 23-27) that highlight participation versus non-participation, the very structure of (18) A similar point is also made by R.H. O’CONNELL, The Rhetoric of the Book of Judges (VTS 63; Leiden 1996) 117, who notes that by placing the tribes at the geographic periphery at the structural centre in vv. 15b-17, their absence from the rally is shown to be the focal concern of the strophe, which serves a rhetoric of rebuke. (19) This is especially so in light of the fact that rra and ˚rb are also used in Gen 12,3; 27,29; Num 22,6.12; 24,9; Jer 20,14; Mal 2,2 as a pair that provides significant binary opposition. In fact, areas in which Israel is said to be blessed (˚wrb) in Deut 28,3-8 if she obeys YHWH are repeated almost exactly in Deut 28,16-19 as the very same areas that will be cursed (rwra) if she disobeys.