266 MARK LEUCHTER battles were waged in the lowlands, the chariot brigades were restricted to those contexts and could not penetrate the highlands, and it is this which is recalled and emphasized in Judg 5,28. The poet behind the Song of Deborah draws attention to the chariot and its deep association with Egyptian campaigns in characterizing the Kulturkampf between Israel and the Canaanite forces represented by Sisera 28. * * * The strategies that worked for the imperial armies in the plains fell flat in the hill country, and this inefficacy undoubtedly contributed to the independence of early Israel as they staked out their territory in the highlands. When the opening lines of the Song of Deborah celebrate YHWH’S mythic prowess as a warrior (vv. 2-5), it must be understood against the lingering memory of late Bronze Age and early Iron Age confrontations which resulted in Israel’s favor. This meeting of myth and history unfolds as the defeat of lowland Canaanite forces attempting to secure what the Pharaohs could not (and in the same manner), and likewise failing 29. The successes of meager hinterland militias against Canaanites brigades utilizing advanced Egyptian technologies such as the chariot clearly affected the manner in which the later historiographer behind Judg 4 envisioned the event, invoking Jezreel — the former crown The persistence of the chariot as an image of a brand of royal elitism to 28 be avoided is found in a wide spectrum of Biblical texts. The report of David’s hamstringing of horses (2 Sam 8,4) should be seen as a gesture to assure the public that he had no interest in amassing a chariot brigade, though it is clear that David did secure horses for other royal and possibly military purposes; see B. HALPERN, David’s Secret Demons. Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Grand Rapids, MI 2001) 138-140. However, the late Deuteronomic legislator behind Deut 17,16 clearly remembers the social ethic with which David was concerned in specifying that an Israelite king should not amass horses, presumably for the purpose of chariotry. This is consistent with the observation above that late 8th – mid 6th century scribes were cognizant of events and intellectual currents of high antiquity. NIDITCH, Judges, 77; ACKERMAN, Warrior, Dancer, 46. 29