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

HIDE AND SEEK: MISCELLANEOUS WOMEN | 179
of a task, and none less than Moses, Samuel, and David’s officers are brought as
example. However, does תובצנ have the same connotations of God-given duty
and responsibility that the dictionary finds in males? Is it dissolved when applied
to a woman in the Bible? These questions seek to address two issues. The first is
to alert to scholars’ biases, for instance in failing to give equal value to men and
women described with the same Hebrew word (as is the case with the nip‘al of
בצנ). The second issue is to further address the realization made in chapter 1,
that there is a difference in meaning between occurrences of the participle as
noun and as adjective to another noun for “person.”
In Samuel-Kings, the masculine plural (always nip‘al) appears often with
the denotation of “chief officers” or a “guard” around their commander. It
appears as a military term, for instance, in 1 Kgs 4:7 in reference to Solomon’s
twelve “district governors,” 42 who provided food for the king on a monthlybased
system. It also appears in Ruth 2:6–7, where Boaz’s supervisor and
reporter is called “the dependent in charge of the reapers” בצנה רענה
םירצוקה־לע. As discussed in chapter 1, most combinations of a term for
“person” (here רענה) with the participle for a function or profession (בצנה)
might indicate a less formal (or the beginning of a) working relation than the
participle alone would convey. This particular instance would either contradict
my theory of a kind of ad hoc status or it would indicate that this רענ did not
have a permanent position as supervisor at Boaz’s service.
The masculine participle בצנה appears in compound formulas of the type
“person + participle” similar to the one just seen in Ruth 2:6–7; yet, unlike other
cases noted in chapter 1, they are built with participles or nouns other than
שׁיא/םישׁנא. One of these cases is 1 Sam 22:17, where the participle
accompanies another participle acting as noun: םיבצנה םיצרל ךלמה רמאיו
וילע “The king spoke to the guard stationed by him.” 43 The feminine of בצנ
appears in reference to Hannah (1 Sam 1), and to Wisdom (Prov 8:2). 44 Hannah
certainly had a purpose as she stood stationed in the temple, expecting a blessing
42 Thus translated by Na’aman, “From Conscription,” 750. Other examples are 1 Kgs 4:5; 5:7. The
verb also means “to stand with a purpose” but not necessarily appointed to any function: Moses and
Aaron stand or wait םיבצנ in the supervisors’ way, Exod 5:20 or YHWH stands beside Jacob in his
dream, Gen 28:13.
43 “The guard” is literally those who run, ץור; and לע בצנ has the meaning of being appointed, thus
“stationed.”
44 BDB, 662. Compare with Hannah’s self-presentation to Eli the priest in a previous chapter: “I am
the woman who stood beside you …” הכמע תבצנה השׁאה ינא (1 Sam 1:26). It might be just
chance that one is used as adjective to the noun השׁא;
however, chances are that there is more to it
here, that Hannah is not “stationed with any appointed duty” and that is implied by the use of the
noun השׁא and avoidance of the preposition לע. The feminine הבצנה appears in Zech 11:16
speaking figuratively of sheep standing firm in contrast to feeble ones, but it is a dubious case, and
the image connotes the quality of firmness, but not of purpose or task. Cf. also Ps 45:10.