Women at Work in the Deuteronomistic History - International Voices ...

SOCIETY’S CONDITIONS AFFECTING WOMEN’S LIVES IN ANCIENT ISRAEL | 109
all attested. But their activities, too, are overshadowed by those of their male
counterparts.” 95
Biblical evidence for temple slavery is rather scant. The םיניתנ, “donated
ones” are mentioned in the post-exilic lists of returnees, but it is not clear
whether their status as consecrated necessarily means slavery. The information
is scant and it only tells us of their services, not of their legal status (1 Sam 2:22,
2 Kgs 23:7). Since “guilds” were hereditary and for life, since pre-industrial
societies do not have high social mobility, and since parents teach children their
occupation, it is very likely that also in Israel slaves donated to the temple would
not be manumitted. 96
Two oblique references might be brought here as possible references to
women permanently ascribed to the Jerusalem temple, perhaps as donated or
enslaved. Josiah’s reform included throwing out and destroying non-Yahwist
cultic objects, including Ashera’s paraphernalia. Second Kings 23:7 mentions
the “women” who wove for Ashera in the very temple compounds. And one of
Ezekiel’s visions includes, also at the northern gate of the temple, women who
sat (תובשׁי, or dwelled?) there, who wept for Tammuz (Ezek 8:1). While the
traditional understanding is that these women were Israelites living elsewhere
and coming to worship, I do not see why the reference could not be also to
women ascribed to the temple on a permanent basis.
PRIVATE LABORERS
From Neo-Babylonian times two archives were found, covering the Murašu and
the Egibi families, which held several businesses and personnel. 97 Slaves were
assigned to all types of work, depending on their training (if they had any), the
size of the household, age, sex, and other factors. Slaves worked in domestic
tasks (cooking, fetching water, weaving, grinding grain), in attendance to the
95 Laurie E. Pearce, “The Scribes and Scholars of Ancient Mesopotamia,” in Civilizations of the
Ancient Near East (ed. Jack M. Sasson; vol. 4; New York: Scribner, 1995), 2266.
96 “Guilds” is within quotation marks because of B. Cutler and J. Macdonald’s warning (indicated
already as they begin their study) that they should not be confused with associations thus called in
the Middle Ages. More on these brotherhoods in chapter 5.
97 Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia, 19–20. “The majority of the documents from the Egibi archive
was composed in the area of Babylon and its suburbs, but a few were written in other cities where
members of the Egibi family possessed real estate or were engaged in business. Unfortunately,
documents from the Egibi archive are scattered among the most diverse museums and publications.
The archive of Murašu was discovered in its entirety in a single room and for this reason was
published more connectedly. This archive consists of 730 tablets in all, a large part of which are
beautifully preserved .... Almost all the texts are dated to the reigns of Artaxerxes I and Darius II.
The earliest tablet was written in 455 and the latest in 403.”