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

PROSTITUTES AND OTHER SEX WORKERS | 311
knew she was a zōnâ-woman and he could go to her. Besides these reasons, it
would be an easy place to identify and, eventually, to hide—realistically, neither
the spies at Jericho nor Samson are very successful at that. Unlike that story,
however, the text does not say that he entered the house of an הנוז השׁא, but
that he saw one and came (in) to her. So, perhaps she did not have a private
space she would call “house” or perhaps it is only a redactional detail.
All matters considered, I have included her amongst the likeliest cases of a
sex worker because it would explain more easily how it is that Samson ended up
on (one of) her bed(s); why the ambushed men thought he would stay the whole
night and not for a couple of drinks only; and what are the similarities and
differences with his failed relationship with his Timnite wife, indicated by
similar beginnings of both stories in 14:1 and 16:1. At the same time, since the
term used is הנוז השׁא, the likeliest probability is that she would be a tavern
keeper and/or an innkeeper, who could, eventually, be included among the sex
workers in the broadest sense of the term: Inducing patrons to drink or to stay
overnight? Promoting prostitution? Accepting patrons herself? Only flirting with
them?
I recognize both the danger of circular reasoning as well as the stereotyping
involved in thinking that any woman who ran a tavern must have been herself a
harlot. On the other hand, like Rahab’s story to be studied following this one,
half of the fun is taken away when one chooses one meaning over its ambiguity.
Whatever one ends up choosing, one may safely commend her, on whose
bed Samson spent at least one memorable night –memorable because of the city
gates, of course!
JOSHUA 2
Another הנוז השׁא is the main character in Josh 2 and, with a passive role, in
Josh 6. The differences between both chapters are well researched and they are
brought here only in what pertains to their information on Rahab or the הנוז
figure.
It is to be noted that the first and fullest reference to a הנוז comes in 2:1 and
it refers to her home: the spies went to “a house of a “zônâ-woman,” and her
name was Rahab/Wide” בח ר המשׁו הנוז השׁא־תיב
. The term הנוז does not
appear again in this chapter, where she is called once Rahab (2:3) and otherwise
“the woman,” “she,” or by the feminine singular pronoun. The expression תיב +
הנוז השׁא is unique, as far as I have been able to trace it. 115 In chapter 6, she is
115 The closest association, “and they trooped into a house of a הנוז” appears in Jer 5:7, a text
actually speaking of adultery = idolatry. Note similarities of Jer 5:7 with Josh 2 are closer than
between Josh 2 and 6.