20 Gregory T.K. Wong Regarding that last point, to be sure, Levin dismisses the references to the non-participants as later additions and sees the information regarding the participating tribes not mentioned in Judges 4 as having been derived from the preceding narrative about Ehud and from Josh 17 (45). In doing so, Levin seems to imply that the core of the song was composed after the narratives of the various judges (or at the very least, the Ehud and Deborah-Barak narratives) have already been compiled into some kind of continuous narrative. But if so, then why compose a thanksgiving song only for the deliverance under Deborah and Barak and not for the other deliverances? And why would later redactors feel the need to add further material to explain the absence of certain tribes from this particular war alone when in subsequent wars led by other judges such as Gideon and Jephthah, even fewer tribes were involved with no explanations given for their absences? Thus, all things considered, what is more likely is that both prose and poetic accounts were based on essentially the same source material or had similar knowledge of the same historical event, but that each author had independently chosen to include different details to fit his specific rhetorical goal. Incidentally, such a conclusion actually coincides with that drawn by Younger on the basis of his analysis of other parallel prose and poetic accounts in the ancient Near East (46). But if the Song of Deborah was indeed composed independently of the prose account primarily as a polemic against Israelite non-partici- pation in military campaigns against external enemies, then the next logical question, which has implications for the date of composition for the song, should concern the ostensible setting under which an author would be motivated to compose such a song. Clearly, one possibility would be that the song was in fact composed shortly after the events referred to, so that the polemic was indeed directed against the non-participants in the war against Sisera. Another possibility would be that the song was composed by none other than the author/redactor of the book of Judges, since the polemic so prominent in the song actually contributes to two ongoing motifs within the book having to do with increasing reluctance on the part of Israelite tribes and cities to participate in liberation wars and a (45) LEVIN, “Das Alter”, 128-130, 136-137. (46) K.L. YOUNGER, JR., “Heads! Tails! Or the Whole Coin?! Contextual Method & Intertextual Analysis: Judges 4 and 5”, The Biblical Canon in Comparative Perspective (ed. K.L. YOUNGER, JR. – W.W. HALLO – B.F. BATTO) (Scripture in Context IV; Lampeter 1991) 135.