Deboraerzahlung und Deboralied (review)

The book is divided into 10 chapters, and although the chapters are not numbered this division enables the reader to comprehend the methodological steps. The appendix includes a detailed bibliography and several indices. The book starts with an overview of the different interpretations of the song of Deborah and gives the author's own interpretation at the end. The text of Judges 5 is carefully analyzed for its literary unity as well as for the special features of the genre "song." As the events being described in the song are reported likewise in a prose version, Judges 4 is extensively analyzed as well. Neef's small book, published in the series "Biblisch-theologische Studien," understands itself not as a history of research but as an independent contribution to research. A revised version of the song, as mainly H. P. Müller has suggested in Vetus Testamentum 16 (1966): 446–459, is rejected. The song is seen as a unity and thus is consequently examined as a whole in terms of style (pp. 70–98). The song is very carefully dated. Finally the topographic information in Judges 4 and 5 is analyzed, leaving the discrepancies between Judges 4 and Judges 5 unexplained, although the history of tradition regarding the relation between the two chapters is defined correctly (pp. 144–158).

The study does not contribute new ideas to research. Important elements regarding the arrangement of the texts are neglected, and there are no innovative suggestions, perhaps because of the author's circumspection. The song is still seen as a song of praise, although the author knows A. Weiser's contribution. The author makes no attempt to solve the discrepancy between the prose version and the song regarding the participating tribes.

The subject of the song of Deborah is the relation between history and confession. The author wants to retain this confession. He consciously sees himself as part of a tradition that starts with the song of Deborah and does not end with the historical critical method.