When Women Kill: Tales of Sex and Slaughter

My next research project deals with women in the Old Testament who kill or are a catalyst for killing. Figures like Jael, Rahab, Dinah, Delila, and Judith (in the Apocrypha) are intriguing because of the intermingling of seduction and death. Jael in Judges 4 and 5 brings a general to her tent under the pretense of offering him shelter and food, but then impales a tent peg into his skull. In Joshua 2, Rahab actually does offer her guests, the spies of Israel, shelter, but is a catalyst for the slaughter of her own people. These stories of delectably disturbing and provocative. I can't wait to see what my research reveals.

Job's Wife

The Biblical story of the book of Job speaks of a man who suffers without cause because of a bet made in heaven between God and the Satan. Before Job's bursts in a soliloquy in chapter 3, his wife enters the scene with the famous words, "Curse God and die." While the words she states are equivocal, they are often translated negatively and her character in ancient and modern literature is maligned. I however argue that Mrs. Job should be seen in the light of Israel's ancient Wise Women found in the books of Samuel (2 Sam 14, 20). When compared to these female sages of old, Mrs. Job' s remarks become rhetorical daggers aimed at her husband to get him to come to the right decision.