"And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."
—Judges 1:19
Proof god's trait of omnipotence was added at a later date.
This verse should also prove something else to the reader. It should prove the point that Yahweh had power on and around the mountains but his power would not stretch far beyond that.
If we compare Judges 1:19 to the following.....
Isaiah 66:15-6 says "The Lord will come with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment on all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord."
...we can see that the use of the term 'chariots' in Isaiah was metaphorical, whereas in Judges it was literal. The author of the Judges verse wanted to make a distinction between these chariots and the usual Yahweh chariots, and therefore added the word 'iron'. That was enough to explain the distinction, which was that these Judges chariots were real chariots.
I will re-write the Judges verse to help explain my ideas.
'Yahweh was on the side of Judah and cleared the mountains of the enemy people with his fiery eruptions and tumbling ash clouds, but could do nothing in the valleys as the enemy had real chariots there.'
The verses in my Chariots of Fire post show us that Yahweh's chariots were to do with fire, wind, etc, which I believe refers to volcanic activity. When it comes to the Judges verse in which Yahweh is powerful on the mountains but not in the valleys, it certainly makes even more sense that Yahweh was a volcano, his chariots of fire were his tumbling ash clouds/fiery eruptions and he was no match for real chariots with iron used by the enemy down in the valleys. In other words, Yahweh could not assist in armed combat. He could make people flee from mountains but he could do nothing against a proper chariot. The Hebrews claimed the glory of victory when in fact they'd done nothing. The volcano, or volcanoes, had done the dirty work.
The Hebrews invaded Canaan, the army of which was equipped with chariots. The Hebrew invaders were able to prevail in the hills, because the rough, slopped terrain prevented the Canaanites from using their chariots there. When the Hebrews tried to advance from the hills into the valleys, however, they were defeated by the Canaanites, because there the Canaanites could use their chariots.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very clear and simple description of a combat situation in which the defensive army was able to prevail with their chariots on flat, smooth ground but was not able to use their chariots on hilly, rough ground.
This text has nothing to do with your idea that the Hebrews worshiped a volcano god that helped them from a mountain.
I believe they did not have chariots, proper military weapons or even a proper army. I believe, before the first monarchy was established, they relied on traps, surprise attacks, militia warfare, etc, using small weapons on foot.
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