This third chapter of Part II continues the study of the Narrative of the Transjordanian Tribes, examiningtexts in Deuteronomy and Joshua that document these tribes’ wartime service. The chapter devotes particular attention to the culminating episode that depicts a dramatic turn of events in which Israel comes close to waging war against these tribes.

This third chapter of Part IV treats the broader purpose of the Song of Deborah. By means of war commemoration, the formation of community that commences already prior to and during large-scale military conflict can persist long thereafter. In times when Israel no longer possessed a native army to fight wars, the Song of Deborah could continue to work as a unifying force for Israel as a “mnemonic community.”The present chapter explores this important function of the song, comparing it to parallels from the Bible as well as the ancient Aegean world and Colonial America. It demonstrates that the song served as a “national anthem” for Northern communities after the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE.

The Bible contains competing maps of Israel’s homeland, and these maps bear directly on questions of belonging and status for communities that affiliated with Israel. This first chapter of Part II compares the conceptions of the conquest that inform these maps.