Biblica_1:Layout 1 21-11-2011 12:59 Pagina 338 338 MARK LEUCHTER The terms Kydsx, K#dq, Ktlxn rh and #dqm lead many scholars see Exod 15 as a composition of the monarchic period or later, con- sonant as these collective terms are with the language of the Zion tra- dition 67. This remains possible, and the very fact that the poem was edited by a Jerusalemite scribe into the Exodus narrative as it now stands obviously indicates that it was part of the literary legacy inher- ited by the Jerusalemite literati 68. However, it is also possible that the appearance of these terms in the Zion tradition represent the appropri- ation of images and language from an older Israelite liturgical work for the purposes of legitimizing the formation of the Davidic monarchy 69. A possible argument against this is that the 8th century BCE oracles of Isaiah make no overt allusions to Exod 15, which may lead some to conclude that Isaiah did not know the poem. Two factors, however, provide potential explanations for this. First, Isaiah’s oracles are geared to promote Zion-centric ideology in the face of Ephraimite refugees, among whom the Exodus tradition was the dominant myth 70. The or- acles of Amos make clear that a Judahite Exodus tradition existed (though distinct in conception from the Ephraimite Exodus tradition), but as Y. Hoffman has proposed, it was eclipsed by the Davidic myth in the religious/political discourse of Judah 71. Isaiah’s rhetoric, steeped in the Zion tradition and Davidic myth, may have been shaped to set boundaries against the influence of Ephraimite tradition in Jerusalem following the fall of the north in 721 BCE and the influence of their traditions among the city’s elite 72. If Exod 15 was read as part of an 67 See, for instance, S.I.L. NORIN, Er spaltete das Meer. Die Auszugs- überlieferung in Psalmen und Kult des Alten Israel (Lund 1977) 36-40; KREUZER, Die Frühgeschichte Israels, 247-248; B.F. BATTO, Slaying the Dra- gon. Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition (Louisville, KY 1992) 109 (see, however, his earlier argument in “Reed Sea”, 30-31, n. 13); SPIECKERMANN, Heilsgegenwart, 114. 68 See above re: the use of the poem in Psalm 78. 69 On this see the poignant observation of D.S. VANDERHOOFT, “Dwelling beneath the Sacred Space: A Proposal for Reading”, JBL 118 (1999) 627-628. 70 See SCHNIEDEWIND, How the Bible Became a Book, 87. On the Exodus as a “charter” myth for the northern Israelite state, see K. VAN DER TOORN, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel (Leiden 1996) 287-301. 71 Y. HOFFMAN, “A North Israelite Typological Myth and a Judean Histor- ical Tradition: The Exodus in Hosea and Amos”, VT 39 (1989) 169-182. 72 Further to this point see SCHNIEDEWIND, How the Bible Became a Book, 73-90, who notes the sociopolitical effects of northern refugees at this time.