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

HIDE AND SEEK: MISCELLANEOUS WOMEN | 215
related roles had already been exchanged from the very beginning with her
brother Jonathan. 154 Sad thing, always to be on the wrong place!
Another clue may come from Bowman’s study. Looking at Michal’s fate
more broadly, Bowman relates two political decisions by David to gain control
over the whole people by seeking allegiance from the “Saulide,” northern
regions, namely, bringing the ark to Jerusalem and claiming devolution of his
former wife Michal. Neither had YHWH’s approval, thus bringing the ark to a
stalemate and Michal to eternal barrenness. He asserts that,
…both efforts result in failure so long as David is acting upon his own
initiative. Whereas God eventually authorizes David’s regaining possession of
the ark, he apparently does not authorize his regaining possession of Michal.
The narrative contains no story of birth to this barren woman…
This suggests that God himself will legitimate the monarchy of David.
Legitimation will not come through an alliance with the house of Saul, nor will
it continue through its progeny. 155
This is also, needless to say, the official view, since the hero is David and
not Saul nor, even less, Michal. Literary work or piece of reality, it is sad that
the woman’s body and sexuality are the battlefield between father and husband
and between them and God. Not the first time, neither the last one.
תוננוקמ — Wailing Women or Lamenters
The term in question, תוננוקמ is the po‘lel feminine plural participle of a
denominative verb ןיק, “to sing a dirge, lament, wail.” The verb is parsed in
different forms along six texts, of which two acknowledge female performers,
none in the DtrH. Ezekiel 32:16 closes a lamentation on Egypt by indicating that
the “daughters of the nations” will sing it. The other occurrence of the term is
also a prophetic invective, this time not against a foreign nation, but directed
towards Judah itself. YHWH warns, it is time to call upon the wailing women
over the general destruction of Zion. In typical Hebrew poetry, two terms are set
in synonymic parallelism, with repetition of one verb (varying its spelling) and
internal chiasmus:
154 Adele Berlin, “Characterization in Biblical Narrative: David’s Wives,” in Telling Queen Michal's
Story, 91–93; Lilian Klein, “Michal, The Barren Wife,” in A Feminist Companion to Samuel and
Kings (ed. Athalya Brenner; 2nd series; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 38 n.5 however,
believes it is, rather than a gender issue, one of docility and control. Bowman, “Fortune,” 99, affirms
that “David’s is a flawed but favored character, while Michal’s is ever victimized but never
vindicated.”
155 Bowman, “Fortune,” 117. Also Haase does a political analysis of the episode.