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

FEMALE SLAVES AND DEPENDENTS | 155
the infinitive הגנ, on the one hand, and דבכ on the other hand. He is also right
in perceiving ironic tones in Michal’s initial complaint—more insinuated than
plainly stated—that David’s behavior has sexual overtones (exhibitionism?) in
front of the women, while the end of the story leaves open the implication that
David did not have any more sexual contact with Michal. 109
Adele Berlin studies the women who play the main roles in David’s life not
as historical figures, but as narrative characters of different depth. Her analysis
shows that Michal and her brother Jonathan play inverted roles in the narrative
of David’s rise. Michal asserts her feelings for David (earlier of love, in this text
of contempt), lowers him through the window, lies for him, and has no children;
Jonathan helps him in a less physical way, makes a covenant with him and has
his offspring sitting at David’s table long after he is dead. On the other hand,
David uses Michal’s feelings but does not reciprocate them (at least narratively
speaking), while his love for Jonathan is very openly expressed. These verses
deny Michal feminine traits, fertility and even beauty: “Not only is this [verse
23] the culmination of the disappointment in her life, and a hit that the husband
who never loved her now stopped having marital relations with her, but ... it
suggests that Michal never filled a female role, or at least the role that the Bible
views as the primary female role.” 110 To her analysis I should add that Michal
never uses “your servant” in David’s presence; she rather stands on an equal
footing with him. Could this be the reason why she loses her battles?
Rolf Carlson builds his argument on the basis of an article by Porter
claiming that the ark had been brought to Jerusalem during the sukkot festival, a
time of fertility renewal rites, popular among the Canaanites, embraced by
David. 111 That politics and religion are mixed is not new, and that Michal might
that is close to David.
109
Crüsemann, “Zwei alttestamentliche Witze,” 226. It will soon become obvious that scholars are
divided in their interpretation of Michal’s barrenness: many assume it implies that David did not
have sexual relations with her any more, while many assume YHWH’s punishment of Michal. See
chapter 5 on musicians.
110 Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1994),
24–25.
111 Rolf Carlson, David, the Chosen King: A Traditio-Historical Approach to the Second Book of
Samuel (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1964), 95, states: “The main theme of the sukkōt festival is
the restoration of fertility, and it is also this which especially characterizes the last passage of 2 Sam.
6, which is described in ‘disintegrated’ sukkōt terms. He [J. Porter, “The Interpretation of 2 Samuel
vi and Psalm cxxxii,” JTS 5 (1954): 161–73] further supposes that the ‘maids’ (’ămāhōt), with
whom David says in v. 22 that he intends to seek ‘honour’ (’ikkābēdāh) are to be regarded as temple
prostitutes, similar to the kōtārātu of the Ras Shamra texts. These ‘daughters of rejoicing’ at the
same time filled a musical function in the cultus; the same has been taken to apply to the ’ămāhōt of
2 Sam. 6:20, 22 .... Kabod implies ‘first and foremost the possession of sons’, as Pedersen puts it;
Porter’s interpretation of David’s statement in 6:22 as referring to a rite of hieros gamos with ‘his
servants’ maids’, v. 20, does full justice to this aspect. Nor can it be ruled out that David’s desire to