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

FEMALE WORKERS RELATED TO THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD | 255
recorded in one of the Amarna letters as one area related to conscripted labor
well before David. According to Na’aman, that is the second oldest attestation
after Alalakh, in which Biridiya, ruler of Megiddo and apparently in charge of
paying their wages, reports: “In fact, only I am cultivating in Shunem, and only I
am furnishing conscripted laborers (amīlūti massa).” 59 Perhaps the region had
been some kind of “no man’s land” with much geographic mobility and that
favored election of someone from the region. Or perhaps the region had become
loyal to David and it would therefore have been a natural area where to look for
someone.
In my opinion, Abishag stood at a crucial place, where only someone
capable, totally reliable, and faithful could stand. Notice is given the readers
that, as Bathsheba enters the chamber to convince David that he should not
delay any longer appointing Solomon as his successor, Abishag was there. She
must have been there most of the time, hearing and seeing more than Nathan or
Bathsheba themselves would. She had the chance—if needed and if desired or
required—to pass on every information about David’s last decisions and
conversations. She must have been chosen because of these qualities, besides
her characterization as a beautiful young virgin from Shunem. That there were
high expectations for this job can be corroborated by two independent facts. The
first one is the evidence from Isa 22 and from the Neo-Assyrian evidence for an
office of the same name with a high responsibility for the person over it (Shebna
or any šakintu). The second element appears in the narrative itself: twice in the
story there appears a possibility for her to become a king’s concubine (David’s)
or a prince’s wife (Adonijah’s), neither of which is finally realized. It is
interesting that neither failure is attributed to her (nobody vetoes her candidacy
to be a concubine or a wife), but to David’s impotence and Solomon’s
assassination of his brother Adonijah. This tells us something about Abishag’s
place in court, at least in principle (perhaps there were other, unstated reasons).
All this considered, at least the possibility that this worker would have held
an honorable status and not just “bedfellow” should be estimated. Of course, we
cannot rule out the possibility that šakintu, sōkēn and sōkenet shared an office
called in the same manner but with disparate working conditions.
תקנימ — Wet Nurse
In the Bible, the Hebrew term translated “wet nurse” is the hip`il participle
feminine of קני, “nurse, breast-feed,” and in DtrH it only appears in 2 Kgs 11:2
(= 2 Chr 22:11), when Joash is taken with his unnamed (wet) nurse from among
the king’s children about to be killed by Athaliah, and both are hidden away for
59 Na’aman, “From Conscription,” 748. The letter’s reference is EA 365:8–29.