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

338 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
industriousness and in general good social behavior, with no reference to her
sexual life. Being hard-working for one’s own benefit and giving as little as
possible as a means of resistance to working for others are values of peasantry
and lower-class, while owning workers and making them work for their owners’
benefit are values of the upper-class. Since, then, honor is not only gender
defined but also class defined, it is important to ask the texts how lower-class
women were assessed by their peers. This is more easily asked than answered,
since DtrH preserves the view of the religious and political leadership. There
are, however, a few clues in the texts to discern how some workers were looked
upon.
The Prostitute
It was stated above that judging from her appearance in DtrH, the prostitute was
one of the lowest women among the outcasts, at least in the elite’s appreciation.
One text in which the profession of the woman matters is Deut 23:19, whose
wages are forbidden as offering to the sanctuary; Josh 2, Josh 6 and 1 Kgs 3:16–
28 need their lack of family to advance the plot. 22 First Kings 22:38 uses them as
an illustration of shamelessness or perhaps impurity. In Judg 16:1, Samson’s
visit to an הנוז השׁא has the aim of creating suspense and having him come out
unaware of the dangers that await him; she could equally well function in the
story as a single, unattached woman, a bartender or a prostitute. From time
immemorial, this is a profession to be associated with innkeepers and taverns; an
association not easy to prove in the Bible, where there is not even a noun for this
other occupation. Nonetheless, one could imagine a combination of activities at
the city’s “pub,” which could have involved lodging and also prostitution.
Again, in a patriarchal system to imagine these chances available to men is not
to be too far from reality, but it is still imagination.
After Judg 16:1, the הנוז appears in her professional role only to imply a
certain social location. Her services were requested by commoners, and while
she is still mentioned in 1 Kings and in the prophetic books, her appearances
there are not as performer of the service she is supposed to provide. 23 The king
has a harem of his own, the priest is forbidden to marry a הנוז, and in the
prophets she is often a foil for Israel. 24 This clearly bans her from access to the
higher social ranks, at least as far as laws are concerned.
22 And some of them are called הנוז השׁא and not just הנוז. Another הנוז השׁא is Jephthah’s
mother (Judg 11), a story in which her condition invalidates Jephthah as heir to Gideon’s, his
father’s, inheritance (but in the story Gideon’s paternity is never questioned; a difficulty were she a
harlot).
23 Except for the song of the הנז in Isaiah, already studied; for even in Ezek 16 and 23, if she is to be
taken literally as a harlot (which is dubious), it is an image to speak of Israel, especially its males.
24 Why a man would require the services of a prostitute is a question that goes beyond the interest of
this work. One can surmise, however, that the elite (priests, sages, king, officials) had at hand