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

204 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
that a woman would play in the streets (Only a prostitute? Only in the
streets?). 125
תופפות — Drummers
The only time the denominative “play the tambourine” (BDB) appears is in Ps
68:26, a qal feminine plural participle, in which the processional order is
prescribed:
get to the front, you singers (םירשׁ ומדק),
(get to) the last, (you) lyre players (םינגנ רחא)
in the midst of (you?) the “young women” (תומלע ךותב) playing/players of
the drum (תופפות) 126
To note here is the fact that the subject is the noun תומלע, also a social
category about which there is no agreed-upon translation. 127 At least one other
text includes a young woman as drummer. Jephthah’s daughter is said to meet
her father “with timbrels and with dancing,” תולחמבו םיפתב (Judg 11:3). I
would imagine she was at the front line of a group of friends of hers or other
women from the household: it would have made a very poor welcome to come
out alone, even if she was a gifted musician.
The third instrument type specifically attested from Palestine, the tambour, is
possibly to be identified with the Hebrew term tōp on the ground that the
apparent use in Nahum 2.8 of tāpap, the verb derived from it, to describe
women beating their breasts in mourning, suggests that the tōp was played by
beating. This is supported by the Septuagint tradition where, out of its fifteen
occurrences, it is rendered in all but one instance by tumpanon, ‘tambourine’.
This need only indicate that it was some kind of drum, but the pictorial
evidence for the widespread use of the tambour favours this identification ... 128
Support for this statement includes Miriam’s leading in the Song of the Sea,
Exod 15:20, where right upon her introduction as “Miriam, the prophetess,
Aaron's sister,” she “took a drum (ףת) in her hand; and all the women went out
125 See chapter 7 on this text.
126 The preposition (תומלע) ךותב is in construct state and thus should be read “in the midst of the
young women” (thus Alonso Schökel & Carnitti, Salmos, 888). If taken as absolute, the young
women get between the two other groups (thus, NRSV, JB, JPS).
127 Carolyn Pressler, Joshua, Judges and Ruth (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 255:
“young women;” Jost, Gender, Sexualität und Macht, 80: “Mädchen”; Engelken, Frauen im Alten
Israel, 44–46 posits the תומלע (Hofdamen or Palastfrauen) belonged to the upper social echelons
and served as accompanying people, played music, and in general were part of court life. Although
one cannot make an argument out of silence when the subject is females in the Bible, it is notable
that they are not paralleled to “your sons” taken to serve as officers in Samuel’s warning (1 Sam 8).
128 Mitchell, “Music,” 130.