The pæan of triumph, ‘sung by Deborah and Barak’ on the day of the victory, is one of the oldest fragments of Hebrew poetry. To its antiquity and the archaic character of its language are due the many corruptions of the text. Some of the passages in it are quite unintelligible as they stand, and the conjectural emendations that have been proposed for them are seldom acceptable except to their authors.[318] But, as a whole, the pæan is not only a magnificent relic of ancient Hebrew song, full of fire and vivid imagery, it is also a document of the highest value for the historian. It gives us a picture of Israelitish life and thought in the age of the Judges, untouched by the hands of compilers and historians, and few have been hardy enough to question its genuineness. It is a solid proof that the traditional view of Israelitish history is more correct than that which modern criticism would substitute for it, and that the ‘development’ of Israelitish religion, of which we have heard so much, is a mere product of the imagination. The belief in Yahveh displayed in the Song is as uncompromising as that of later Judaism; Yahveh is the God of Israel, who has fought for His people, and beside Him there is no other god. The monotheism of Deborah is the monotheism of the Pentateuch. Nor is the song less of a witness to the truth of the history which we have in the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua. It tells us that Yahveh revealed Himself to Israel on Mount Sinai, and it distinguishes the tribes one from the other, and assigns to them the territories which bore their names. The Song began with words which, as we see from Deut. xxxiii. 2, Ps. lxviii. 7, were a common property of Hebrew poetry. ‘For the avenging of Israel, When the people gave themselves as a freewill offering, Praise ye Yahveh! Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes, I will sing unto Yahveh, even I, I will make music to Yahveh the God of Israel. O Yahveh, when thou wentest forth from Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped water.[319] The mountains melted from the face of Yahveh, Even Sinai itself from before Yahveh the God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar ben-Anath, [In the days of Jael][320] the roads were deserted, And the travellers walked along by-paths. The peasantry failed, in Israel did they fail, Until I, Deborah, arose, I arose a mother in Israel.