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

250 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
his accession to the throne, 2:13–25). 41 As the dispute between Solomon and
Adonijah comes to a close with Adonijah’s death and Solomon’s rise as
monarch, she disappears from the record.
A third fact unique to this woman is the use of the participial form of the
stem תרשׁ to express her service to the king (v. 4, 15). The verb applies in
general to ministerial service, including higher domestic service such as that of
Joseph in Egypt and of Gehazi for Elisha, royal officers (1 Chr 27:1, 28:1), royal
domestics such as those the Queen of Sheba saw in Solomon’s palace (1 Kgs
10:5), and angelic service to YHWH (Ps 103:21). It also applies to worship by
priests and Levites (Exod 28:35, Num 3:6, 8:26, Ezek 44:17–27). The only
woman of whom it is specifically used is Abishag the Shunammite. 42 As if these
ambivalences were not enough for Dtr, he adds still another note. Abishag is
said to be a תנכס, qal participle from the verb “to be of use or service,”
therefore in participial form “steward” (Isa 22:15) or “stewardess” (1 Kgs 1:2–
4). 43 The ambivalence of this term originates in the fact that its cognates point to
officials of varied responsibilities and status, and since the origins of the word
are unclear, it is hard to determine what would have been the most likely
meaning of the term in biblical Hebrew. The following examples will illustrate
the problem. In Ugarit, the masculine term škn appears as an epithet of the king
of Ugarit, high above other titles: “Thus the skn office may be seen to be higher
than that of the crown prince .... This statement accords with that of M. Heltzer
... that the skn/sākinu held the second highest office in the kingdom.” 44 In
Assyria it also applied to a high officer in the administration of the kingdom. As
Heltzer points out, then “the most important question is a) did the office of the
sokenet reach Israel from Assyria? b) was it a result of the local independent
development? or c) is the office of the sōkenet in Sargonid Assyria a loan from
41 It is also differently perceived by scholars. For instance John van Seters, “Love and Death in the
Court History of David,” in Love and Death in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Marvin H.
Pope (ed. J. Marks and R. Good; Guildford: Four Quarters, 1987), 121, takes her as a concubine:
“Finally, in 1 Kgs 2:13ff., Adonijah becomes infatuated with Abishag, the former concubine of
David, and makes a request for her from Solomon through Bathsheba.”
42 One could argue that her brief appearance happens in the story and perhaps not in real life. This is
true, but all the writer allows us to know (all her existence in a sense) is what the story tells us. On
the other hand, although perhaps long in years, if she had a historical existence after her life together
with David, it would have been in the “harem,” as so many other examples in these books tell us.
Elna K. Solvang, “Classifying Women: The ‘Harem’ and What it Does and Doesn’t Tell Us about
Women,” in Proceedings of the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Held at the Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago, July 18–22, 2005 (ed. Robert D. Biggs, Jennie Myers &
Martha T. Roth; Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 62; Chicago: The University of Chicago,
2008), 415–20.
43 The Aramaic cognate, sgn, appears in Dan 2:48; 3:2,3,27, with BD’'s translation of “prefect.”
44 Cutler and Macdonald, “The Unique Ugaritic Text UT 113 and the Question of ‘Guilds,’” 33.
Reference to M. Heltzer, 33 n.19: “Problems of the Social History of Syria in the Late Bronze Age,”
in La Siria nel Tardo Bronzo (Rome, 1969), 41. See also Yamashita, “Professions,” 64–65 #29: škn.