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

150 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
maternal Shechemite tradition evidenced in her first naming him, and then
bringing him up far from Gideon’s house, it is not far-fetched to suppose certain
tensions between clans as well as between endogamy and exogamy—to the
extent that such categories apply in Judges. In light of this tension, the question
remains, is this המא a slave? Is Abimelech a son of a slave or a “son of a …”?
That is, is it literal or an insult? Boling does not decide for or against her
designation as implying low status.
Charles Fensham compares appearances of המא־ןב and cognates in Ugarit,
the Amarna letters, and the Hebrew Bible and concludes that in the social realm
המא means a slave woman, in the political realm, a city in a vassalage
relationship with a more powerful city and king, and in the religious realm a
woman who places herself under the protection of the Deity. 90 Fensham finally
opts for the literal sense of slave in this text. He sees him in a situation similar to
that of Ishmael, the son of a manumitted slave claiming his right to a share in his
father’s inheritance … only that he claims the wrong share!
ben-´ámätô, the son of his handmaid, the third person suffix referring to
Gideon. ... might have been used to show the citizens of Shechem what kind of
social status their king has. They have elevated the son of a second-wife, from
his menial position of ben-´ämäh to that of a king .... If Abimelech was the son
of a second-wife, we must accept that with the death of Gideon he received
manumission and thus became free. It is, however, but natural, in the
circumstances described in Judges, that his brother should refer to his previous
lower status. Like in the case of Ishmael, Abimelech is denoted as the son of a
handmaid, a status that does not allow him to inherit his father's position, but
only part of his property. By accepting the kingship of Shechem he usurped a
position which was not legally intended for him. 91
Naomi Steinberg submits Judg 9 to a social-scientific scrutiny and
concludes that the key issue to which the chapter originally spoke is how
manipulation of kinship lines can lead to disaster, rather than unity among the
tribes. Abimelech manages first to kill his own brothers and then to divide the
Shechemites, his own people, into several factions, all of whom seek their own
political or economic advantage but end up defeated or dead. 92 How does the
fact that his mother is called an המא affect the picture, considering Abimelech’s
use of his family for his own advantage? Steinberg asserts that in circumstances
like the ones depicted in Judg 9, the concubine was not primarily bound by
economic reasons.
90 Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” 319.
91 Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” 319.
92 Steinberg, “Social Scientific Criticism,” 51–53, argues for such an original meaning of the chapter,
which a later Dtr hand re-interpreted in the light of the exile by adding the parable to the ‘historical’
events.