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

PROSTITUTES AND OTHER SEX WORKERS | 291
(exaggeration) to bring his warning home: “Any ‘loose’ woman, whether
professional or amateur, is dangerous: Watch out, young man!”
This text, then, could be interpreted to contradict the trend I have detected,
which uses the noun on its own for the professional prostitute and the compound
הנוז השׁא for the “loose woman.”
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON TEXTS OTHER THAN DTRH
The information gleaned throughout these texts about a particular group of
female workers is not abundant. This is the case also about other professions;
but unlike studying these, the major difficulty in searching for the harlot has
been to decide what certain texts (and their interpreters) do not say.
References to the commercial transaction of sex are rare and oblique but are
present in the story of Tamar’s ruse and in some prophetic and wisdom texts.
The song of the forgotten harlot in Isa 23 seems to indicate what was the fate of
an old prostitute, but this is also not totally clear. Other indications as to her
profession would only be those alluded to in “the garment of a הנוז,” in
associations with music, and with going around the city attracting men’s
attention to her (Isa 23:16); or perhaps in the description in Prov 7:11 that she is
“loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home” (NRSV), although it is not
clear, in that text, where the comparison ends and the allusion moves to the
unfaithful wife.
With regard to her social location and ascription of honor, assessment is
partly dependent on the selection of texts and on the degree to which we believe
the descriptions that follow the metaphor apply to her. This is especially
important—together with the ideological-theological criticism of such
utterances—in the prophetic oracles studied and the many other left aside
(especially Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel).
If the four occurrences in Proverbs were taken to refer to a sex worker, then
the image of the harlot would show a shift from the harmless woman who is
treated as a poorly paid service provider to the object of the parents’ concern
that the family inheritance not be spent on them. If, as I believe, only some texts
say something about the harlot, her social location is with the lower class: she is
done with a few coins (a flat bread), she is easily forgotten and needs to attract
patrons in order to survive; there is no concern for her well-being or for her life
at all.
On the other hand, precisely because she does not belong with the “people
like us,” the danger that she might become wealthy through exploitation (!) of a
patron might have made its way into a popular saying. Not very likely, and
rather class-biased, at any rate.