Biblica_1:Layout 1 21-11-2011 12:59 Pagina 343 343 EISODUS AS EXODUS: THE SONG OF THE SEA The concept of divine kinship redemption in Exod 15 carries an additional connotation, however, that suggests an early usage — it creates a sense of ethnic uniqueness that complements the deliberate adjustments to Canaanite mythopoesis earlier in the poem. In Exod 15, highland life connects the people to their patron on the same “ancestral” estate in a familial manner. This is not simply a mythic or ritual matter: by making Israel the kin of YHWH, the poem forever precludes the possibility that Israel’s kinship ties may be traced to the earlier Egypto-Canaanite culture 94. The recitation of the poem during festivals throughout the Israelite hinterland helped to delin- eate social boundaries as early Israel crystallized from the mixed multitudes that came together through common cause and creed. Those who partook in the building of communities upon the land could participate in the recitation of the poem at communal festi- vals. Those who recited the poem were thus liberated from “Egypt” through YHWH’s act of salvation and became his own kinsmen, and those who became kinsmen of YHWH became the kin of all Israel. In this way, families and clans in different regions and from differ- ent backgrounds could become a cohesive network. The M( — the divinely redeemed kinship group (v. 13) — became M( l)r#y 95. This idea would indeed be ripe for re-use in the mid to late 6th cen- tury BCE as Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah’s audiences returned to the land, struggled to establish social cohesions and stability, and at- tempted to reconnect with the foundations of national memory. who do not rise to the task. See L.E. STAGER, “The Song of Deborah: Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not”, BAR 15 (1989) 50-64. 94 It is notable that the same attitude is not preserved regarding the ma- jority of eastern nomads. Midian and Amalek eventually stand out as ene- mies; see SCHLOEN, “Casus Belli”, 38. Polemics against Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other groups surface especially within the Patriarchal tales in Genesis. But these tales do not deny ancient kinship commonalities shared between Israel and these other nations, whereas the repeated anti-Canaanite polemic fixes the ethnic gap. 95 On M( as a kinship term, see VAN DER TOORN, Family Religion, 200, 203-204. See also CROSS, From Epic to Canon, 11-13.