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

2 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
Egypt and delivered by YHWH. The location of people in genealogies and the
distribution of land according to tribes intended to provide Israelites with socioeconomic
and political protection. It is evident, however, that working one’s
own land and being free Israelites was the ideal to which they clung, but the
writers were also aware that not every family could attain these—not even those
families that had enjoyed, for several generations, a privileged position.
HOW DID I COME TO THIS BOOK
My research on female labor is born out of a conflation of concerns, intersecting
at the junctures of gender and class; to be more precise, an awareness of the
number of biblical stories in which dependent women (also men) perform some
task and immediately vanish from the story. There are several examples
throughout the narratives. The Pharaoh’s daughter and Naaman’s assistants
(Exod 2; 2 Kgs 5) are just two such instances of dependent women and men,
both at a riverside, engaging in actions that will affect their own lives and
nations. Like so many narrative characters, what they do is not their everyday
task (take an ark from the waters or convince their master to follow Elisha’s
advice). On the other hand, to be available to their master or mistress and follow
orders was certainly in their job description. 3 Since also the Deities commanded
and were obeyed by kings and prophets (or so these claimed), following orders
does not say much about work in ancient Israel.
Ascription of honor and shame are social instruments, used by the dominant
culture to reward those who comply with its criteria and control those who think
otherwise. What is honorable is not homogenously accepted, not even within a
given culture. There would be several elements of a culture shared by most of its
members; others would be less agreed upon, and finally, even those values
mostly accepted would be challenged or rejected by certain sub-cultures. 4 The
dominant view, evident in the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH) and other biblical
writings, ascribes honor to those in good Yahwistic standing (observers of ritual
and other religious laws and regulations), ties to prominent families, possession
of land, respect for those higher in the hierarchy and, particularly for women,
mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result”; and 2) “work as a means of earning
income; employment.” The latter is the one adopted here by the word “work.”
3 There are both Israelite and foreign examples and also other, more dramatic, war-related examples,
such as Saul’s armor-bearer (see 1 Sam 31:4, where the Hebrew term is ילכ אשׂנ, not דבע) or the
female servant who passes information to David during Absalom´s revolt (החפשׁה, 2 Sam 17:17).
4 People who worshipped the Queen of Heaven, for instance, deemed not “YHWH alone” worship in
the same way as Jeremiah (or a priest) would—and for them it was also a matter of honor-shame.
Other examples are not religious, such as underdogs tricking the powerful and even the Gibeonites
tricking the conquering Israelites. Jargon, regional differences, women’s defiance of males (Queen
Vashti), and several other factors would have challenged the prevailing honor system.