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

304 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
and the prostitutes washed—according to the word of YHWH, which he had
spoken” (v. 38). 98
The wayyiqtol chain proceeds uninterrupted from the shout going through
the camp that everyone should go home (v. 35), 99 continues with Ahab’s dying,
being brought to Samaria and being buried and still goes into the washing of the
chariot and the licking of the blood by the dogs at the pool. Then, in order to
signal a change, the narrative chain is interrupted and a new subject precedes the
next verb, וצחר תונזהו, and the zōnôt washed (themselves). The whole story
comes to an end with the narrator confirming these events as the fulfillment of
YHWH’s word. 100
What about prostitutes? Information about prostitutes is rather scant here,
but also unchecked in the sense that, not being the focus of attention, they are
paid little attention by the narrative and therefore, are not subject to “politically
correct” jargon. The focus is on the most shameful end of a powerful and evil
king, whose death in battle is not bad enough. Thus, the fact that prostitutes
bathe or wash in the pool of Samaria, where his royal blood ended, signals both
the sorry fate of someone who does not die in peace and the sorry fate (the low
status) of women who did not have their own home to bathe and needed to do so
at the public pool. As stated earlier, there are no irrefutable proofs that these
תונוז were prostitutes and not “loose” or “single women” unattached to a
patriarchal household; they do not appear in a typically business-like
transaction. And there might have been single women who were also homeless
and needed to wash themselves (and their clothes) at the public pool.
That the term is generic (article + plural participle) and that it does not
appear as appositional or adjectival complement to the noun “woman,” indicate
98
The unity of the chapter is highly disputed. Burke O. Long, 1 Kings with an Introduction to
Historical Literature (FOTL 9; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 232–3, 237–9 takes it to be a unit.
S. McKenzie The Trouble with Kings (VTSup 42. Leiden: Brill, 1991), 89, 92, notes several
inconsistencies, among them the irregularity that Ahab is said to have “slept with his ancestors.” The
phrase “slept with his ancestors” is used, according to G. Hölscher, “Das Buch der Könige, seine
Quellen und seine Redaktion,” Eucharisterion (FRLANT NF 19. I. Göttingen, 1923, quoted by
McKenzie), 185 only of kings who died in peace; thus, the notice in 1 Kgs 22:40 does not know of
22:38. McKenzie further calls attention to a later addition, 21:27–29, the postponement of Ahab’s
punishment announced by Elijah. Since these two texts contradict 22:1–38, they are seen as a later
addition to the book of Kings. More recently, see Patrick Cronauer, OSB, The Stories about Naboth
the Jezreelite: A Source, Composition, and Redaction Investigation of 1 Kings 21 and Passages in 2
Kings 9 (T&T Clark: New York, 2005) on all the texts related to Naboth, King Ahab and Jezebel.
99
Marvin Sweeney, I & II Kings (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 261 interprets
the cry as a sign of victory.
100
Marian Broida, “Closure in Samson,” JHS 10, art. 2 (2010), n.p. [cited 22 January 2011]. Online:
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/jhs-article.html, under “Literary Features Enhancing Closure”
discusses, among other devices, interruption of a wayyiqtol chain by introduction of a qatal SVO
(subject, verb, object) sentence and death as closure indications. In our particular text, v. 39 also
serves such a function by referring to the Book of the Deeds or Annals of the Kings of Israel.