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

FEMALE SLAVES AND DEPENDENTS | 123
grouping references to the רענ in a cluster of functions, which are more
determined by the place where they appear than by what they do—which is the
reason why there have been so many translations and interpretations for one
term.
Perhaps the most important [observation about םירענ who are servants] is how
seldom the biblical text actually reports them doing anything. The most
prominent feature of their activities seems to be their presence: they are “with”
other characters, they are taken along, they are sent and left behind, they speak
and are spoken to, but often the real work of the narrative is performed by other
characters. 23
In the Hebrew Bible there often appear תו/םי/ה/רענ
as indicators of their
owners’ status and honor, as “someone to talk to.” 24 The רענ’s
location was
lowly and vulnerable, and that of the הרענ likely lower than that of the male,
and especially vulnerable in terms of her sexuality. 25 A majority of תו/םי/ה/רענ
are servants located in the domestic, the agricultural, and the cultic settings,
staying at one place or travelling with the master or mistress. In the book of
Ruth, Boaz has םירענ and תורענ among his workers, from harvesters to
overseer. At least some תו/םי/ה/רענ enjoyed a degree of power, within the
limits imposed by the fact of not being paterfamilias, of course: Gehazi
(Elisha’s רענ), Ziba (Saul’s רענ), and this unnamed supervisor of Boaz are
examples. There is no similar הרענ recorded as personal assistant to a prophet
or king’s advisor; there is, however, an outstanding הרענ, Abishag the
Shunammite (1 Kgs 1:1–4). 26
23 Leeb, Away from the Father’s House, 42.
24 They indicate their owners’ status, and not the other way round. This means that a master with
several servants who go on errands, prepare food, bring information, fight with him, is a powerful
man in his society. This does not make the רענ powerful or important, as scholars believed earlier.
Part of the confusion with םירענ as important military warriors is that the status of the masters
whom they serve has been transferred by commentators to them. See Leeb, Away from the Father’s
House, 43 (status indicators), 43–44 (anchor points, someone to talk to), 44–45 (serving and standing
by their masters, and conduits of information between “inside” and “outside”); 45 (traversers of
thresholds).
25 Leeb, Away from the Father’s House, 44–62 (domestic), 62–66 (agricultural), and 66–67 (cultic).
26 Among those identified by name Gehazi appears in several stories in 2 Kgs 4:8 through 8:1–6, in
one of which there is also a הנטק הרענ, a “small dependent” (2 Kgs 5). Most dependents go
unnamed, such as Abraham’s (Gen 18:7), Nabal’s (1 Sam 25:8, 14–19) or the Levite’s (Judg 19).
Ziba is also an interesting narratological character, in that he is named, he himself has slaves and
children (he is far from being a boy), he maneuvers in order to get the best he can out of
circumstances (especially during Absalom’s revolt), yet not only he remains a רענ throughout the
text, but “[w]e know nothing about his family or ancestry, his home town or ethnicity, nor about how
he came to be in the service of Saul.” (Leeb, Away from the Father’s House, 62). Whether legally