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

REASSESSING THE SOCIAL LOCATION OF FEMALE LABOR IN THE DTRH | 339
What the assessment of the prostitute was among women is extremely
difficult to infer from the texts. Admonitions to sons against the temptation of an
adulterous woman or spending too much on a harlot might reflect concerns
shared by father and mother, but they also show class biases. As observed in
chapter 7, at least in the Hebrew Bible prostitutes do not enjoy palace life, where
the king has access to several wives of different rank and characteristics. They
are usually associated with the poorer areas of the city or its vicinities, the city
wall, its gates and the public pool. Incidentally, the notice about King Ahab’s
blood at the pool of Samaria lowers his status and honor by identifying the pool
at which his blood was rinsed off as the place where also the prostitutes wash
themselves.
We find no elements for a more precise assessment of the biblical prostitute.
She was sought by some men, despised by the elite and perhaps ignored by
others. What is sure is that everyone in her society would have known she
belonged to the outcasts.
Women Brought into the Harem
How Abishag got to serve king David reflects the elitist and androcentric
assumptions that the king’s needs come first and can be solved by a pretty virgin
girl in his bed. Since she is never mentioned by a patronymic, it is hard to say
what kind of a family she had, where she stemmed from, and whether her move
to the palace was seen as a promotion or not. The book of Esther assumes this
type of event—beauty contest, one night with the king, the chance of being
called again—as desirable for women, but again, nobody asked the women what
they felt. 25 Furthermore, Esther’s beauty contest led to her being designated as
queen and saving her people, a fate totally unlike that allotted Abishag the
Shunemite.
Samuel’s speech on the liabilities of the monarchy (1 Sam 8) might be
useful in this discussion. Samuel warns of the consequent exodus of Israelite
youngsters from their family farms to join the court in tasks such as the military
women whom they could control better than the prostitute. The king made political alliances through
marriage and concubinage and would not need a harlot. In Prov 29:3 the preoccupation is that the
young man would not spend his inheritance in prostitutes, hardly a concern of a king or a courtier.
Thus, there is a drastic decline in the appearance of the harlot as the DtrH progresses, which is not to
be read chronologically, but socially. This means that the explanation is not that with the
advancement of the monarchy prostitution disappears, but that as the Dtr becomes more immersed in
court-related issues, prostitutes are increasingly left in the margins, as they serve the man who is also
in the periphery of political life.
25 Scholarship is divided since Rabbinic times as to whether Esther was taken forcefully or
voluntarily to King Ahasuerus’s harem. At any rate, she seems not to bother much about questioning
the system until Mordecai’s pivotal challenge in 4:13–14.