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

HIDE AND SEEK: MISCELLANEOUS WOMEN | 177
institution, I am inclined to believe that the majority of these women were also
ascribed to groups or guilds, so that control was easier. I suggest that, the more
public the profession and the more related to issues of purity, the lesser
probabilities to find there female workers. For instance, men who prepared the
animals or the bread for daily sacrifices at the temple would more likely be
controlled by functionaries (priests?) and would have been restricted from
women for the sake of purity taboos.
SECTION II: DTRH REDACTORS FALL SHORT OF THE MARK
My title for Section II is accurate, even though not very academic. In this section
I look at hints within the DtrH about tasks regularly realized by women—and
specialized women—in which none of the terms for female occupations dealt
with in last chapter is used, nor is it totally ignored (those come in Section III).
Sometimes these women are mentioned in passing, as “the women who were
doing so-and-so” and sometimes they are depicted only within the religious
realm.
תובצנ(ה) and תואבצה םישׁנה — Women on Duty
Starting from Josh 1, only one birth is recorded in the DtrH: that of Ichabod, son
of an unnamed woman and a deceased paternal line (1 Sam 4). He is the only
survivor of the priest Eli’s lineage. His mother is a theologian, as we will see
soon; so the narrative becomes important in itself. As YHWH had announced,
Eli’s two sons Hophni and Phineas died in battle against the Philistines. Eli died
when he heard the news and fell from his chair on his neck, and the ark of God
was lost.
His daughter-in-law, Phineas’ wife, was pregnant and about to give birth. And
she heard the news that God’s ark had been taken and that her father-in-law and
her husband had died. And she bowed down and delivered, for her labor pain
came suddenly. As it was time for her death, the women attending her ( תובצנה
הילע) said to her “Do not fear, for you have borne a son.” (ןב יכ יארית־לא
תדלי) But she did not answer, paid no heed. And she called the baby Ichabod
(“Where is the Glory?”), saying “The Glory has departed from Israel because
God’s ark has been taken,” and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
And she said “The Glory of Israel departed, for God’s ark has been taken.”
(1 Sam 4:19–22)