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

148 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
competitive relationship among equals. 83 It is ideological because, first, the
person who thus declares him/herself is in a social position close enough to the
other one as to have to declare that s/he is willing to be in an inferior position
(otherwise there would be no need to assert it); secondly, biblical and extrabiblical
examples point at many important characters thus debasing themselves,
who are aware of the serious consequences a wrong movement on their side
might bring, and speak not from a literal position of slavehood, but with the
intention of pursuing certain goals. Thus, there is no example of a slave using it,
because there is no need to mark difference. 84 This is most obvious in the case of
the wise women of Tekoa and Abel, who are political negotiators; in other
instances—Abigail’s dialogue with David, Hannah’s with Eli, or the woman of
Shunem’s plea to Elisha—the woman is in a humble position due to her need,
while at the same time her need makes the strongest argument in her favor. 85
Outside the DtrH the book of Ruth would be worth studying on this issue,
particularly the connection between Ruth’s use of הירכנ,
“alien” in 2:10 and
ךתחפשׁ “your slave” in 2:13 to enlist Boaz in her plans. A similar connection,
this one between המא and the foreign woman, appears also in two stories in
Judges (8:31–9:18 and 19), where Abimelech’s mother and the unnamed
concubine of a Levite are presented as alien to their husband’s household and as
תוהמא. 86
When a woman is named “המא” not by herself but by a third person, the
reader has to find out if there is an ideological motive for the speaker to use
המא in a diminishing way or whether there is another explanation for her being
called המא. 87 Three stories from DtrH will be studied here. It will be shown that
83 Non-biblical examples of self-abasement on the part of men abound for instance in the Amarna
letters, where the vassal king calls upon his Egyptian sovereign both debasing himself, and expecting
the promised help from the powerful overlord. See, Lindhagen, Servant Motif, 7–13 (Amarna
parallels), and different examples in Edward J. Bridge, “Self-Abasement as an Expression of Thanks
in the Hebrew Bible,” Bib 92 (2011): 255–273. C ited 22 January 2013. Online: http://www.bsw.
org/Biblica/Index-By-Authors/Self-Abasement-As-An-Expression-Of-Thanks-In-The-Hebrew-
Bible/470/.
84 One possible exception (depending on one’s interpretation of his status) is Ziba, who had been
Saul’s רענ. In 2 Sam 9, David restores Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, to a client of his, and
confirms Ziba’s attachment to Saul’s house. In the successive dialogues in this chapter, first Ziba
and later Mephibosheth refer to themselves as (David’s) “ךדבע.” Considering Ziba’s role, it is
likely that he was a dependent, but not a slave. Otherwise, Ziba would be the only slave to state his
dependent status to his own master.
85 See above a list of women who use this device; H. McKay, “She Said to Him, He Said to Her:
Power Talk in the Bible or Foucault Listens at the Keyhole,” BTB 28 (1998): 46–48.
86 K. Nielsen, Ruth: A Commentary (OTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 60.
87 See Crüsemann, Widerstand, 19–54; Z. Weisman, Political Satire in the Bible (Atlanta: SBL,
1998), 25–36; Katie M. Heffelfinger, “‘My Father Is King’: Chiefly Politics and the Rise and Fall of
Abimelech,” JSOT 33 (2009): 277–292; and Ken Stone, “How A Woman Unmans A King: Gender
Reversal and The Woman of Thebez in Judges 9,” in Women of the Hebrew Bible and Their