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

CHAPTER 4
FEMALE SLAVES AND DEPENDENTS
Chapter 1 looked at the difficulties in establishing a model that contemplates
women and social stratification in ancient Israel, and chapter 3 reviewed the
political and socio-economic conditions which led many women throughout the
ANE to work in multiple occupations and locations as slaves and indentured
servants. When an army managed to have a city surrender or be taken, the most
privileged sectors of society (if not killed) were deported and located elsewhere,
while the people of the land were left to work it and pay high tributes. 1 Although
conditions might have varied depending on social groups and conquerors, the
customary situation of labor in one’s own household, for one’s inheritance,
could very easily be drastically disrupted: the mistress could become slave to a
foreigner, and the farmer, tenant of his own land (Isa 47; Deut 30:15–20).
Conversely, if one’s king conquered another, there would be foreigners being
brought in, and displaced people seeking refuge. It should not be surprising,
then, that the Bible is aware of the fact that a number of women worked for
others. What should be surprising is that scholarship in general has paid so little
attention to the contribution females made to their society in socio-economic,
cultural, and religious terms, and to the matter-of-factness of the Bible on this
issue. In her overview of woman in the OT, Phyllis Bird states that
1 See Albenda, “Woman, Child, and Family,” 17–21.
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