Abigail of Maon and the Wise Woman of Abel: Speaking Truth to Power

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

David J. Zucker, Aurora, CO, USA, and Noam Zion, Hartman Institute of Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract

In 1 Samuel Abigail of Maon and then in 2 Samuel the Wise Woman of Abel dare to Speak Truth to Power. Each woman employs the wisdom of a moral appeal to the male aggressor’s better inclinations to deescalate a situation where her community is seriously threatened with violent and immediate annihilation.

Key words: Abigail of Maon, David, Joab, Nabal, Sheba son of Bikhri, Speaking Truth to Power, Wise Woman of Abel.

On two occasions in the Books of Samuel, David or King David’s military representative, his principal general Joab, encounters resistance from a strong-minded woman defending her world. This woman speaks up and challenges the imminent and indiscriminate intent to destroy her and her whole community. David and David’s representative Joab initially seem to regard the woman and her companions as expendable, collateral damage in order to defend David’s honor and reestablish his authority over a disrespectful male figure who has threatened David’s hegemony. Into the violent male vs. male political contest a woman intervenes with only her persuasive words, with a mere appeal to reason and morality, to stop in his tracks a determined, and angry warrior ready for his assault on someone who has insulted his honor and undermined his legitimacy. First in 1 Samuel 25, Abigail of Maon, the wife of Nabal, and then again in 2 Samuel 20, the anonymous Wise Woman of Abel (Abel Beth-maacah) dare to confront and defy the intentions of armed forces bent on overrunning and destroying their worlds. Both many chapters and many years separate these two narratives. Yet each relates to the moral-cum-religious-cum-political decisions about whether (and if yes, then) how to use political violence. In both cases we will explain how the women themselves initially appear to be allied with the unrepentant male protagonists who deny 1 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

David’s claims to authority. (Abigail presents herself as equally guilty with her husband for whose life she pleads. The city of Abel apparently joined the revolt along with all the northern Israel tribes against David. They offered Sheba refuge but have not handed him over while Joab has been assiduously preparing siegeworks). These narratives portray David as a novice regional chieftain on his way up the ladder to monarchal pretensions and then as an aging veteran monarch desperately trying to hold on to royal power and maintain national unity in a series of civil wars. Text and Context Abigail of Maon (1 Sam 25): Abigail is the wife of a wealthy landowner who lives near the Judean desert. Her husband Nabal owns 3000 sheep and 1000 goats. Where Abigail is praised as intelligent and good-looking (tovat sekhel vifat toar), Nabal is characterized as a hard man and an evildoer (qasheh v’ra ma-allilim – vv. 2-3). He is also described as a person who is nasty or ill-natured (ben-b’liya-al – 1 Sam 25:17; ish ha-b’liya-al, v. 25). Coincidentally, Sheba son of Bikhri is also described with that latter phrase, ish ha-b’liya-al (2 Sam 20:1, and Joab with his brothers is described as a hard man (2 Sam 2:18; 3:39). This is early in David’s career. He is forced out of Saul’s court, and is living off the land with a group of six hundred of his followers. “David extends his protection to the region’s inhabitants—farmers and shepherds—against outlaws, services for which he demands payment (even though he was never asked to perform them).”1 When David sends a number of his young men to greet and bless Nabal with good wishes for peace expecting to be paid for their contribution to a successful season of sheep grazing, Nabal dismisses his request labeling David as a nobody. David takes great umbrage and prepares to wipe out Nabal and his household.2 Nabal’s character is so harsh, that no one can communicate with him (1 Sam 25:17). So one of Nabal’s young men goes straight to Abigail to warn her of David’s expected vengeance. Providing an objective perspective, the young man reaffirms David’s version of his loyal service to Nabal and explains that David and his followers did protect Nabal’s property from harm. David did not shame Nabal’s shepherds, while Nabal spurned and debased David’s representatives (1 Sam

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

25:14-16). Abigail takes direct action without informing her husband who apparently is busy celebrating the shearing season. Abigail sends great quantities of bread, meat, and fruit to David to try and appease him (vv. 18-19). Following up in person, Abigail seeks to placate David, terming her husband a boor (the word Nabal can mean a boor, a fool, a knave, ill-natured, or a good-for- nothing).3 Rachel Adelman adds relevantly that Isaiah describes a “nabal” as one who is stingy refusing to share his food with the needy and who willingly lies in turning aside the lawful claims of the poor (like David’s servants). She refers to Isaiah 32:6, “For the villain speaks villainy [naval n’valah]… to act impiously… to leave the hungry unsatisfied and deprive the thirsty of drink.”4 Abigail throws herself at David’s feet, putting herself in imminent danger. She then proclaims her political and prophetic truths and urges David to reconsider his plan. Abigail wraps these truths in outrageous and obsequious flattery. She suggests that God has great plans for him. Alice Bach argues that “the primary theological function of Abigail is to speak the word of YHWH to David. While Nabal is ignorant of David’s true identity, Abigail recognizes David as the future king of Israel. Her prescience is a clear indication that Abigail is God’s chosen prophet-intermediary.”5 Her counsel will serve David’s long-term concerns and her own, but it also appeals to David’s image of moral leadership; he has to refrain from wanton destruction, which would tarnish his reputation. As Jan P. Fokkelman succinctly observes, the “unity of Abigail’s speech lies in the fact that she appeals to David’s self-interest; Abigail is so convincing to David because she illustrates that David will be fouling his own nest if he spills blood.”6 She concludes with a statement representing her own long-term self-interest (now separated from her plea to spare Nabal) that when David does prosper, he should remember her (vv. 25-31). “For YHWH will grant my lord [i.e., David] an everlasting house because my lord is fighting the battles of YHWH, and no wrong is found in you… [God] has appointed you ruler of Israel and let this not be a cause of stumbling and of faltering courage to my lord that you may shed blood needlessly… and when YHWH has prospered my lord, remember your maid” (1 Sam 25:28, 30-31).

David listens to her and praises and thanks her elaborately; he complies with her suggestion. Upon returning home, on the next day Abigail informs Nabal what she has done. He seems to have a

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel stroke, or an apoplectic fit and soon dies. Shortly after this, David sends for Abigail and she quickly joins him becoming his second wife. Thus, while David’s aid to Nabal’s shepherds and his request to share in Nabal’s prosperity was ungratefully spurned, David proves himself a generous and appreciative beneficiary of Abigail’s aid when he remembers her in his time of prosperity. The Wise Woman of Abel (2 Sam 20): This episode takes place many years later. David has become king. He has had to suppress challenges to his role, including an unsuccessful revolt led by his son Absalom. Not long thereafter a troublemaker, Sheba son of Bikhri, a Benjaminite, leads a different, but ultimately unsuccessful, uprising against David. He proclaimed: “We have no portion in David, no share in Jesse’s son, every man to his tent, O Israel” (2 Sam 20:1). All the northern tribes of Israel join his revolt, leaving only the tribe of Judah in support of King David (2 Sam 20:2). In short order Joab, David’s lead general, who had almost singlehandedly defeated Absalom’s revolt that combined the tribes of Judah and Israel, sets out after Sheba who is leading the tribes of Israel in a new revolt. Sheba has taken refuge in a town, Abel Beth-maacah, so Joab lays siege to that community; he begins to batter its walls. Suddenly a wise woman (an isha hakhama, v. 16) calls to Joab from the town’s ramparts. “Hers is the voice of the besieged.”7 She engages him in conversation and they begin to negotiate over the matter. She proposes that he need not act in haste. “Her language is to the point, assertive and pithy.” 8 She says, In olden times it was said: “Everyone asks (advice) of Abel, and they follow it.” I (stand for/belong to) the peace-loving, the faithful in Israel. You are seeking to kill a city, a mother in Israel! Why do you destroy the inheritance of Yahweh? (2 Sam 20:18-19).

Surely there is no need to destroy the whole town, killing innocent people simply because they are living there. Joab is open to this kind of negotiation and the matter is resolved peaceably without any violence on Joab’s part, though Sheba is killed and his head is thrown over the wall. Joab and his armed forces then retreat having regained, by negotiation, the political loyalty of this northern city of Israel which itself had executed the rebel leader thanks solely to the Wise Woman of Abel.

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Thus, both these women successfully negotiate with David and his general to avoid excessive violence and to reaffirm his legitimacy. Yet there are important ethical and gender issues at stake as well that allow us to analyze their artful rhetoric of persuasion and the way it seeks to transform the ethical-political policies of David’s dynasty. Their speechmaking modulates David’s use of violence and thus further his pursuit of divinely and popularly affirmed authority and legitimacy, not merely that of power and control. Speaking Truth to Power In a general sense, in each case these women dare to speak out of turn although as women they lack formal authority and also lack military prowess. They dare “to speak truth to power” where the “truth” is a rhetorical appeal to lessen violence in the name of ethical and political values and where the “power” itself is already mobilized to inflict grave and indiscriminate bodily harm. L. Juliana M. Claassens identifies a feminist motif which celebrates women’s purportedly pacific values and denigrates the male propensity to aggression: These stories both have female characters who inadvertently find themselves in a context of violence and who seek to deal with the effects, or the potential effects, of violence on their communities. These… stories vividly capture some of the very different ways in which women in the [Hebrew Bible]… are resisting the violence of war that has the potential to utterly destroy their families and the communities in which they live.9

Claassens’ specifically addresses “Abigail’s use of the spoken word in 1 Samuel 25,” yet her description also applies to the Wise Woman of Abel. Their words add “an important perspective to the nature and significance of female resistance in the… [Hebrew Bible]. Far from being a victim who is helpless to change her own situation as well as the situation of others around her, Abigail’s words… are life-giving in nature. She emerges as the quintessential embodiment of Wisdom, a prime example of what it means to do justice, to show kindness—in the process serving like Woman Wisdom as counselor to kings”10 in Proverbs. There in chapter 8, Wisdom self- describes saying, “I, Wisdom live with prudence… Mine are counsel and resourcefulness… courage is mine” (Prov 8:12, 14). Ironically, Wisdom also says, “I hate… duplicity in speech” (v. 13). 5 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

In both examples these women oppose indiscriminate violence, yet they are not pacifists. Claassens’ observes, “even though Abigail is held up as a model of nonviolent resistance, elements in her speech in some sense undermine this portrayal. Her words in verse 29, in which she expresses the wish that David’s enemies will be like a pebble in a slingshot, perhaps referring to his most immediate enemy, Nabal, who a couple of verses later indeed will be struck dead by God, offer some disconcerting associations with violence.”11 Coincidentally, Abigail’s words echo David’s slaying Goliath with his slingshot (1 Sam 17:49-50). Then, later in Abel, as a response to the Woman’s “clever plan; … they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikhri and threw it down to Joab” (2 Sam 20:22) as if from the hollow of a sling. In looking at contemporary understandings of these women’s resistance to the threat of overwhelming male violence, we recall two popular phrases: “weapons of the weak” and “speaking truth to power.” The first phrase is explored by James C. Scott12 who describes the agency and activism of those whose status, such as slaves or women, structures their asymmetrical dependence on the arbitrary authority and the brutal power of others possessing a higher status, such as masters or patriarchs. “Weapons of the weak” are everyday strategies for maintaining one’s dignity, sidestepping punishment or coopting the self-understanding of the authority’s figure for the benefit of those who are relatively disempowered. Trickery and subterfuge are central to such acts of resistance and it is only recently that such acts have been called heroic. In her book on Biblical women’s resistance, in its very title, Claassens describes these women as “claiming dignity” by struggling to avoid dehumanization. By contrast, the phrase “Speaking Truth to Power” is often associated with the heroic principled protest against public figures. The term became popular in the U.S. when employed in a Quaker pamphlet penned in 1955, “Speak Truth to Power: a Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence.”13 Here the Quakers challenged the U.S. government’s logic for a nuclear arms race during the Cold War. The government justified escalating threats of violence as the only language the other side would understand. The Quakers protested the proliferation of nuclear arms and

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel sought to defuse the mutually self-destructive cycle of male leaders engaged in a characteristically male competition of ego. The motivation of these unarmed women, Abigail of Maon and the Woman of Abel, to intervene in a violent dynamic of male political competition in which the women will bear the brunt of collateral damage, is not unlike the wives of soldiers of the warring Greek city states portrayed in Aristophanes’ play “Lysistrata.” Cognizant that they, as women, possess something the men need perhaps more than honor – sexual satisfaction – the women in Aristophanes’ play “Lysistrata” deny sex to their husbands to compel them to make peace even at the expense of failing to prove their valor and defend their honor. The women in that 5th century BCE Greek play withhold sex to stop the war.14 According to a rabbinic midrash Abigail derails David’s concentration on military violence by hinting that she will make her vaunted erotic prowess available to him should David abandon his plan of attack. She arouses his sexual passion and thus sublimates his passion for violence, as anger mutates into lust (Babylonian Talmud Megillah 14b). Today the phrase “speaking truth to power” is often applied to situations where non-violent political tactics are used by individuals or groups to challenge the call for violence. It also calls into question the propaganda of governments which justifies what the protesters see as oppressive or authoritarian behavior pursued in the name of national honor. “Speaking truth to power” means speaking what we believe to be “true” to someone in authority who seeks to suppress consideration of an alternative to violence. The truth-tellers risk their lives, for those who wield power might well take a verbal protest as a betrayal of loyalty and an attempt to foment rebellion since it challenges the legitimacy and the wisdom of that group or government. Often speaking-up exposes a coverup of unpleasant contradictions between official rhetoric and actual deeds. In the contemporary world Jeremy Hammond observed that “When we speak truth to power we are ignored at best and brutally suppressed at worst.”15 Similar possibilities may well have crossed the minds of Abigail and Abel’s Wise Woman. It is to their credit, and also to the credit of those whom they addressed that these women are not ignored, much less brutally suppressed. Instead, by their

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel artful words, alternatives for advancing David’s honor and interests are adopted for everyone’s benefit (including initially Nabal’s), though not Sheba’s. * * * * In the Bible there are several comparable examples of figures, who although occupying an inferior position in a hierarchy, lacking relative authority and brute force or wealth, nonetheless they dare to speak a truth critical of the authority of someone who holds power. They do this in order to hold those in power accountable to justify their actions by using a rational, moral and/or religious standard. With the only resource at their disposal being their rhetoric of verbal suasion, they seek to change the mind of commanding figures about the legitimacy of using the considerable resources of their offices to inflict violence whether judicial (in the case of God with Sodom- Gomorrah, Genesis 18) or military (in the case of David with Uriah, 2 Sam 11).16 In the example of Abraham confronting God over the verdict that will decide the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham courageously challenges the Deity with the classic rhetorical question, “Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Gen 18:25). Abraham suggests that a true judge would not punish the innocent along with the guilty. The “truth” spoken to “power” is the accusation that God is not acting here as a true judge. Abraham infers that God is a hypocrite who has lost his moral standing, since, Abraham contends, God’s mandate to rule is based solely on Divine justice. Abraham suggests that unless God rescinds what appears to be God’s verdict, then God’s judicial pretenses become a false front about to be exposed. Aware that he is speaking “out of turn” as mere “dirt and ashes” (Gen 18:27) to the all-powerful God, Abraham realizes that he may be endangering his own life. The protestor will then become the object of retribution. While Abraham’s accusation is scandalous, it is offered in good faith not only for the sake of truth and justice but for God’s own self-interest. It is in some sense good advice to protect God’s honor lest God be seen as an arbitrary autocrat. It serves God’s own ends to be recognized as just. From God’s own soliloquy before revealing to Abraham the divine plan to investigate, judge and then destroy Sodom should it prove guilty as accused, the readers know what Abraham does not: God

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel chose Abraham in the first place “to teach/command his children and household who would follow him to observe the way of YHWH to do what is just and right (tz’daqah u-mishpat)” (Gen 18:19). That is the divine project for founding the great people of Abraham in order to be a blessing to the nations. Perhaps at a certain level of the Deuteronomic history of the monarchs, Abraham’s calling is also the basis of the covenant with the dynasty of King David anointed by Nathan the prophet and handed on to David’s son Solomon with the words: “Be strong and become a man and keep the observance of YHWH your God, walking in his ways and following his laws, his commandments, his testimonies, as written in the Torah of Moses, in order for you to succeed in all you do” (1 Kgs 2:2-3). How to combine both following God’s just ways and being strong and masculine in the dynastic sense of outsmarting and neutralizing your enemies using political violence and wisdom is the great challenge of the books of Samuel in which Abigail and the Wise Woman of Abel play their roles as advisors who sometimes approach the calling of the prophets. Can David learn to play on the human plane the judicial role of God for which Nathan wishes to hold him accountable? In the Bathsheba affair, the prophet Nathan confronts David in the name of an unjustly exploited man whom King David as ruler should have been protecting (2 Sam 12:1-4). Here ironically Nathan speaks not truth but what Uriel Simon terms a “juridical parable,”17 a subterfuge, to gain David’s sympathy and arouse his indignation at the ruthless exploiter of this impoverished man who lost his beloved lamb. Like Abraham, Nathan surely is aware of how dangerous it is to expose the false claims of legitimacy of a ruler. After all David has used his military forces to arrange for the disappearance of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah just to cover up David’s embarrassing sexual exploits. Nathan’s goal is not to be a martyr for the truth, but to offer a persuasive rebuke to David and to be an effective advocate of policy change and personal moral reform. Unlike Abraham, the Wise Woman of Abel, or Abigail, Nathan as a prophet has God’s mandate to impeach David, so Nathan can now change his posture from lowly petitioner for the people’s

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel justice to an imperious representative of the God who gave David his monarchial mandate and covenant on condition of obeying the Divine commandments. With great audacity on Nathan’s part, the prophet minces no words when he thunders at David, “You have flouted the command” of God by putting Uriah to death and taking his wife as your own (2 Sam 12:9). David has taken another man’s wife and betrayed a loyal soldier by ruthlessly asking his morally neutral general Joab to put Uriah in harm’s way during a battle for Israel and for the king. Precisely because David covers up this execution, Nathan knows that David believes within his heart that he is acting improperly. Yet he cannot know if David’s bad conscience will lead to him to confess, as it does, or to arrange for Nathan’s disappearance. Both Abraham and Nathan exercise the verbal tools of persuasion that tiptoe around the truth and at a crucial point audaciously dare to make a bald accusation, by exposing a brutal moral truth, that would highlight their interlocutors’ hypocrisy, or more kindly, their inconsistency. With such power behind him, we may ask why Nathan begins with a subterfuge. His point is surely to win David’s willingness to see his situation from a moral perspective. Since Uriah is already dead, Nathan can only hope for David’s voluntary repentance and future moral reform. For Abraham, as for Abigail and the Woman of Abel, the point is to prevent the bloodshed of innocent people, those of the city of Sodom and that of these women themselves and their communities. In terms of Abigail of Maon and the Woman of Abel, unlike Nathan they do not have God’s backing and their criticism is not spoken in the name of an absolute truth such as might be presented by altruistic NGOs to an authoritarian regime, nor do they speak with self-righteousness. They do not condemn all violence but only protest this injudicious and excessive cause of bloodshed. Then they offer a more peaceable but not a bloodless option. “Abigail knows her situation. She alone must turn away the anger of someone who marches toward her with four hundred armed men.”18 Abigail subtly but unambiguously suggests that David refrain from bloodshed for his own sake, and then she invites God to resolve the problem at hand. “YHWH who has kept you from seeking redress by blood with your own hands—let your enemies… fare

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel like Nabal…” (Sam 25:26). In the case of the Wise Woman of Abel, after assuring Joab that the matter would be resolved, the “woman came to all the people [of Abel] with her clever plan; and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikhri and threw it down to Joab” (2 Sam 20:22). In each case the woman appeals to David’s longer-term political concerns which depend on maintaining his reputation as a just ruler (Joab representing David in this latter situation). Thus David will not be implicated in a tyrannical use of gratuitous violence against fellow Israelites.19 These women propose solutions which will assure David’s best self-interest. In terms of Abigail, “Israel’s future legitimate king,” and in the case of the Woman of Abel, David-as-king, “must also carefully… do his best to appear not only calculating and ruthless but also lordly, discriminating, and virtuous. He must refrain from blotting his record with unnecessary bloodshed… he must keep his personal fingerprints off the violent deaths of personal enemies.”20 Not only David’s moral standing is at risk, but also the one protesting to David must face fateful ethical as well as political dilemmas. The Woman of Abel is true to her role as a protective mother of the city in submitting to Joab’s authority, but she must repudiate the hospitality of her city for Sheba. Perhaps her city has been directly allied with Sheba’s revolt just as they may likely have joined Saul’s son Ish Boshet and more recently David’s son Absalom in previous civil wars that denied King David’s legitimacy. More complex is Abigail’s choices because Nabal is more closely associated with her; he is her husband and holds patriarchal authority over her. On one hand, Abigail betrays her husband by siding with his enemy and positions herself to marry David. Her moral justification, beyond self-defense, is her duty to protect her legacy, whether this means literal children (hinted at by David’s threat not to leave alive any male heir to Nabal, “anyone who pisses against the wall” - 1 Sam 25:22), or the preservation of her family, her servants, and her possessions/property. The “centre of gravity of the content of the entire speech… refers to the main purpose of the entire intervention: preventing a bloodbath. Abigail… is concerned with survival.”21 With a keen sense of her own agency and the power of speech, she treads a fine line between loyalty to her household, whom she wishes to save from a bloodbath, and disdain for her husband, whom she identifies as “a scoundrel of a man”… She rattles off her dismay with a word-play on his name [v. 25]… Once she

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

exonerates herself, the path is paved not only for the counter oath that will save her people but also for the request to “remember your maidservant” (v. 31)—that will save her.22

Additionally or alternatively, Abigail may claim to be protecting her husband’s life, even though she does not defend his honor. In fact she calls him a fool (Naval/n’valah – v. 25) in punning on the meaning of his name. Making him look like a fool is the way David earlier saved himself from Philistines by playing the fool (see 1 Sam 21:13-16). Another possibility is that this is meant ironically. Nabal is meanspirited, and a fool as well. Through his actions he risks his life as well as the males of his household in not complying with David’s request. David however, pretended to be a meshug'a (crazy man) to save his life, demonstrating cunning. Or perhaps David admires Abigail as a fellow plotter. In her case she is defending either a fool or a very unpolitic man. In either case he is not worth David’s second thought or risking his reputation to eliminate this worthless scoundrel whose insults are meaningless. Similarities Between the Woman of Abel and Abigail The Bible’s androcentrism/patriarchy reflects commonly accepted behaviors at that time and is broadly consonant with the culture of that era. Nonetheless, within patriarchy, these women command respect, hold positions of honor, and shape male political decisions by serving as wise and useful advisors in a crisis. Claudia Camp describes the Wise Women in 2 Samuel, the Tekoite (in 2 Sam 14) and here, the woman of Abel (in 2 Sam 25), as “figures who stand so boldly before a king and a general.” Abigail’s stance against David is no less bold. Both Abigail and Abel’s Wise Woman seem “accustomed to making and delivering such judgments.” As the Abel woman’s “authority is without question,” so Abigail takes decisive action. Both women offer “persuasive counsel, presented in a compelling manner.”23 Abigail is characterized as “beautiful and intelligent. She is hospitable. She is apparently at least quasi-prophetic. But she is also a smooth- talker. She is also at least a little vindictive. She has her own best interest in mind.”24 Those qualities to a great extent are also true of the Wise Woman of Abel. “The woman’s… speech… is

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel very similar to the… beginning of prophetic oracles (where we can find… instructions… to listen = be obedient.)”25 In these two cases we find women using rhetorical suasion but without explicit trickery. Both act to defend themselves and their family or community. To do so each is willing to betray loyalty to a man, in Abigail’s case her husband and in Abel’s the guest who may claim sanctuary or perhaps the loyalty of an ally. Each one chooses sides and declares loyalty, explicit (Abigail) or implicit (Abel), to the aggressor who threatens her. Each of them makes the violence of forced submission unnecessary though they do not advocate pacific values in and of themselves. These are examples of the powerful agency of women within their limited positions. Beyond their admirable ability to survive in a violent world of clashing male egos, these women represent in their rhetoric higher values characteristic of Wisdom literature – opposing short term expediency to long term considerations of policy and self-interest; defending a community as against an individual; protesting indiscriminate violence, though not advocating pacific values generally; and replacing decisions made on the basis of irrational emotions of honor-driven vengeance and anger with consultation and consideration of rational and moral factors that contribute to political legitimacy beyond the immediate conflict at hand. Differences in the Leadership Styles of Two Wise Women While much has been said about parallels of these women who speak truth to power, we turn now to the differences. First, the authoritative standing of Abigail the wife of Nabal and Wise Woman of Abel are strikingly different, and hence their rhetorical strategies, while sharing important aspects, also diverge. Tikvah Frymer-Kensky regards the Wise Woman of Abel as a recognized leader: The “namelessness of this woman is an indication…that ‘wise woman’ indicates a particular role… a position of leadership.”26 She argues that she clearly is a respected and trustworthy leader and Joab is willing to enter into negotiation with her. He exposes himself to danger by coming close to an enemy and placing himself in a vulnerable position even though he himself is aware of the dangers of betrayal even when hostilities have been formally suspended or

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

resolved. After all, Joab betrayed and assassinated both Abner and Amasa in close encounters when these former enemies foolishly trusted him (2 Sam 3:27; 2 Sam 20:9-10). Frymer-Kensky continues: The woman calls to Joab to approach. Coming close to a wall during a siege can be very dangerous. Abimelech the son of Gideon died an ignoble death when he came too near the wall of a besieged city. He was on the verge of winning as he approached the wall, but an unknown woman dropped a millstone on him and cracked his skull (Judg. 9:53). Joab knows this story. He himself mentioned the death of Abimelech when he sent a messenger to inform King David of the battle in which Bathsheba's husband died. Nevertheless, when the woman tells him to approach, he does so. His willingness to risk it is an indication that the “wise woman” who calls him is not simply a woman who happens to be smart. She is an official. As such, she is calling him in her official capacity to a formal parley. Parleys always involve a temporary cease-fire. No one will rain things on Joab's head during a parley, and he can safely draw near to negotiate with her.27

Further she demonstrates her absolute authority over her city assuring Joab that his request to hand over Sheba son of Bikhri will be executed forthwith: “Look! His head is thrown to you over the wall.” (2 Sam 20:21). Frymer-Kensky argues: The passive muslak “is thrown over,” and the deictic “Look!” show that her word has authority. Rather than say, “I will see what I can do and report back tomorrow,” she announces that the deed is as good as done. Then she comes to report in her Wise-Womanhood behokmatah [2 Sam 20:22]. The implication of this term is not simply that she comes to advise wisely; that would be behokmah, “with wisdom, wisely.” “In her behokhmatah” means “in her Wise-Womanhood,” in her official capacity as Wise Woman. She has made the decision. The people did as she said.28

Thus, this woman’s wisdom transcends the character trait or skill at persuasion attributed to the Wise Woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), to whom Joab earlier turned to persuade King David to pardon his son Absalom, and to Abigail (1 Sam 25) who offers David the renegade, unsolicited political advice. The wisdom of this woman of Abel, observes Frymer-Kensky, grants her an official judicial-cum-political role like that of Deborah the Prophet and Judge (Judg 4). While politely presenting her advice to Joab, “Listen to the words of your servant” (2 Sam 20:17), her tone is not deferential or desperate and her style is not prolix as is Abigail’s (1 Sam 25:24-31). Rather the Wise Woman of Abel proudly announces to Joab that in consulting with her in Abel, he has come to the right place and, by implication, to the right person, for Abel is well-known for adjudicating difficult cases. Frymer-Kensky continues:

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Abel, she declares, is known in Israel as a place to go to render decisions and settle disputes. “They have always spoken thus since early times: ‘Let them inquire at Abel and then they will conclude.’” [2 Sam 20:18]. Just as the people came to Deborah's palm tree to be judged, so they have also come to Abel when cases are too complex or politically dangerous for the local legal authorities to decide… Everyone knows, says the Wise Woman, that Abel-bet-Ma’acah is a center for judgment. “Let them inquire” is proverbial: let them send inquiries to Abel for resolution. Abel resolves disputes in Israel as a mother resolves disputes among children, and thus Abel is ‘ir va-‘em, a “mother-city” in Israel. The Wise Woman of Abel describes herself as of the peacemakers of the faithful of Israel … The “peacemaker” resolves disputes, making decisions that answer the inquiries presented at Abel-bet-Ma’acah. The “faithful” or “trust-worthy” abide by the peacemaker's decisions rather than settle disputes by force (emphases in original).29

Frymer-Kensky portrays the Wise Woman of Abel as a Deborah-like resolver of disputes who reframes her requested parley with the besieging general Joab. Ostensibly, the besieged city will call for such talks with the aggressor to plead for mercy or to negotiate a conditional surrender. Yet this woman leader suggests to Joab that he had better come to her city as a petitioner consulting about the resolution of a knotty problem from a wise oracle or judge. Thus he can avoid bloodshed and achieve his goals peaceably. In our judgment, however, the Wise Woman actually takes on, not the wisdom role, but the role of prophetic moral critique modelled by Abraham who challenges a higher authority, God, with impudence. Like Abraham, the Wise Woman of Abel challenges the aggressor who would like to see himself as executing justice against one who has sinned against him and warns him that his actions are themselves a great crime that will besmirch his reputation and contradict his own self- image. Neither the Woman of Abel nor Abraham are in a position to threaten their interlocutor with punishment should they do something dastardly like wipe out the innocent with the guilty or destroy a whole city in Israel, God’s inheritance. But they can save Joab and God, respectively, from the public shame that would otherwise desecrate their good name (“Halilah” [far be it from me/surely not]) (2 Sam 20:20; Gen 18:23-25). Thus, they entice Joab and God to declare or swear to avoid making such a scandalous error (2 Sam 20:20; Gen 18:26). In both the case of the Woman of Abel and of Abraham, as the appointed or the self-appointed defender of a whole city in which criminals and innocents are mixed, they mount an audacious and risky verbal assault on the aggressor who is poised to wipe out the cities. They turn the tables to 15 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel their advantage by placing Joab and God in morally defensive positions. They suggest that the punishing general and the punishing judge are in the wrong. This opening gambit quickly reverts to a negotiation in search of a compromise. In the end the Woman of Abel purges her city of the sinful outsider seeking refuge so that justice is done and the rest of the city saved. Abraham more daringly wins a conditional pardon for the whole city including the righteous and the wicked, though he fails to find the minimum number of ten innocents to fulfill the conditions of the compromise. Abigail also seeks to save her whole camp, after admitting her shared guilt with Nabal. Unlike the case of Abraham and the Woman of Abel, Abigail’s appeal is for unwarranted mercy, though she too warns David that if he does not stop now, he will be regarded, like God in the case of Sodom and perhaps Joab, of “shedding blood unnecessarily,” killing the innocent together with the guilty (1 Sam 25:31; Gen 18:23). But Abigail never accuses David of intending to commit an injustice, as does Abraham to God and the Woman of Abel to Joab. Rather she proposes that David portray himself as the forgiving victim of injustice and ingratitude, letting God be his judge and in due course God will dispense with his enemy. That is the explicit policy of self-presentation adopted by David in the chapters surrounding the tale of Nabal (1 Sam 24 and 26). Twice David proves himself as the savior of the divinely anointed King Saul, who had intended to kill an innocent David, by exposing Saul’s flawed military negligence. Twice David forgoes the just vengeance due to his unjustified pursuer. In refraining from killing King Saul, the anointed/appointed of God, David twice uses the phrase, “Halilah li from YHWH!” (1 Sam 24:7; 26:11). Later, in refraining from damaging Abel, a city belonging to God, Joab also uses this phrase, Halilah (2 Sam 20:19-20). As mentioned earlier, “Halilah” means something like “far be it from me/surely not.” As Abigail had argued, so too does David in his encounters with Saul (1 Sam 24, 26) that David’s violence might have been morally justified. Yet it would have been unnecessary and unwise since God will execute justice against David’s enemy whom David refrained from killing (1 Sam 24:13; 26:10). King Saul understands perfectly and acknowledges the moral advantage gained by David’s refraining from

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel executing justified justice, measure for measure: “You are more righteous/innocent than I am, for you reciprocated goodness and I reciprocated evil” (1 Sam 24:18). Contrasting Wisdom Traditions of the Two “Servant Women” Abigail and the Wise Woman of Abel share their wisdom tactics and their endgame to dissuade a determined warrior already launched on a campaign to take indiscriminate bloody vengeance on a rebel. Abigail, however is in a radically different position than the Woman of Abel. While both preface their speeches with the same disarming phrase, “Listen to the words of your servant” (1 Sam 25:24; 2 Sam 20:17), Abigail is really helpless in the field lying at the feet of an armed and angry David who has sworn before his men to wipe out Nabal’s household (1 Sam 25:24). So she begins by professing her guilt and cursing her husband while proffering an extravagant compensatory bribe. By contrast, the Wise Woman of Abel towers over Joab from behind a protective wall with a whole city at her back. Employing what Frymer-Kensky calls a “rhetoric of humility” (as does Jacob before Esau in Gen 32-33), Abigail portrays herself as an abject servant repeating that phrase five times (1 Sam 25:24 [twice], 25, 27, 28), and repeatedly calling David “my lord” (15 times), while Joab is never called “my lord.” Instead, the Wise Woman of Abel calls him unceremoniously by his name twice, without showing him any deference. While Abigail takes on all the blame for herself and her husband for antagonizing David and provoking his wholly justified but bloody justice, the Woman of Abel, though her city is under siege, has probably revolted against David, and taken in the chief rebel, she accuses Joab of unjustifiably threatening to destroy a mother city of Israel and thus YHWH’s permanent inheritance (2 Sam 20:19). She is not on the defensive appealing for mercy, but like Abraham she forces Joab into a defensive posture. In short Abigail is much more disadvantaged than the Woman of Abel. Therefore the Woman of Abel chooses a strategy showing her strength and only then agreeing to a compromise, while Abigail chooses the strategy of beginning with total capitulation before employing an appeal to David’s self-interest and moral reputation to dissuade him from violence.

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Eventually the Woman of Abel disassociates herself from Sheba, and so does Abigail, though subtly. Robert Alter observes: “It is hard to think of another instance in literature in which a wife so quickly and so devastatingly interposes distance between herself and her husband. She rapidly denounces her spouse and then counterposes herself (‘And as for me’…) as a person who had no part in the rude rejection of David’s emissaries.”30 Yet more accurately Abigail’s self-distancing starts with her total identification with her husband and sharing of his guilt (unlike Adam who blames Eve). In the end both Abigail and the Woman of Abel promise the aggrieved aggressor that their enemies will be destroyed without the aggressor doing anything if only he shows restraint. Abigail’s success depends on God’s timely intervention to strike down Nabal, however, while the Wise Woman of Abel arranges Sheba’s demise herself. Let us delve more deeply into the moral rhetoric used by these two women and its larger significance. Both the Wise Woman of Abel and Abigail convince the aggressors to define themselves using the rhetorical possibilities constructed by these women and then to adopt political, moral and religious restraint that nets the same destructive result they pursue without soiling their hands. Their restraint not only helps them avoid ruining their reputation but enhances it so that their ruthlessness is hidden (momentarily for Joab) or temporarily reformed (David). Frymer-Kensky highlights that in the case of David, for Abigail’s female wisdom seems to have a lasting effect on David’s policy or at least on his own rhetoric: David understands the promises in Abigail's speech. In the next chapter, when Saul again falls into David's power, David repeats his determination to respect the sanctity of God's anointed. He states to Abishai, “Who has sent his hand against the anointed of God and been free from punishment? (1 Sam 26:9) ... He has fully internalized Abigail's prediction that “YHWH will hurl away the life of your enemy”31 (emphasis in original.)

We would, however, modify Frymer-Kensky’s claim that it is exclusively Abigail who teaches David this ethico-political wisdom of restraint, since David has already expressed a similar view in the chapter before Abigail and Nabal (1 Sam 24:13). But Abigail should get credit for reinforcing that policy of David’s when David is overcome with anger and when David is confronting not a king who is the anointed/appointed of God but a disgusting, insulting knave. As Jon Levenson notes:

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

“The episode of Nabal is the very first revelation of evil in David’s character. He can kill. This time he stops short.”32 It is Abigail, not Bathsheba, who dares and succeeds in stopping David from killing her husband. Thus, David is taught by his wisdom teacher Abigail to discipline his moral character and rein in his indiscriminate emotional reaction to being humiliated by one who refuses to recognize his honor and destiny. Nabal declared with derision: “Who is David and who is the son of Jesse” (1 Sam 25:10). Similarly, Joab learns from the Wise Woman of Abel to show restraint and to single out only Sheba who led the rebellion against King David (2 Sam 20:1). Joab agrees to let the city of Abel go unpunished though it probably supported Sheba who succeeded in mustering “all of the men of Israel who betrayed David” (2 Sam 20:2). Joab even allows the city itself to prove its renewed loyalty to King David by executing Sheba rather than Joab taking vengeance. This was no small achievement of the Wise Woman of Abel. Beyond her appeal to David’s political self-interest, Abigail is a moral teacher instructing him in a classic mark of Wisdom literature’s character ethics – to control one’s anger (Psl 37:8; 86:15; Prov 14:29; 15:1; 22:24; 29:22; Eccl 7:9). David – in principle, though not always in practice – adopts a leadership posture that appeals to popular support by cultivating the avoidance of “shedding blood unnecessarily” even of enemies, just as Abigail taught him. Thus David trumpets his self-image as “a soft man,” unlike the “hard men,” the sons of Zeruriah, Joab and Abishai (2 Sam 2:18; 3:39) as we noted earlier. Nabal is also considered a “hard person” which rendered him – unlike David and Joab– impervious to rebuke (1 Sam 25:3, 17). Even on his deathbed, David tries to disassociate himself from Joab’s spilling of innocent blood in time of peace (1 Kgs 2:5-6) despite the fact that the bloody policies of vengeance of Joab often served David’s political interests, and even though in the same deathbed speech he urges his son Solomon to use his wisdom, not for self-control, but in a thoroughly duplicitous and unethically manipulative way to wipe out David’s (and therefore, presumably, Solomon’s) enemies.

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Political Ethics and Two Competing Wisdom Traditions in David’s Dynasty While Abigail restrains David’s violent streak at least at Maon and the Wise Woman of Abel restrains the even bloodier Joab at Abel, neither eliminates their ethically problematic tendency to employ political violence systematically when necessary. Thus in David’s life two kinds of wisdom compete: the discriminating political wisdom that restrains violence for ethical and long-term political advantages as promoted by two resourceful women versus the ruthless, purely instrumental cunning attributed by David to Solomon (1 Kgs 2: 6, 9) and demonstrated by the wisemen of David’s court like Jonadab (Amnon’s advisor on the rape of Tamar), Ahithophel (advisor of the rebel Absalom), and Hushai (David’s advisor who misleads Absalom, 2 Sam 13:3-5; 17:1-14). As Rachel Adelman notes there is a characteristic gender stereotype in the tale of Abigail: “While the repartee between the men is inflammatory, Abigail and the servant plot to quench the flames. A gendered lens is clearly operative – the men up in arms, the women placating.”33 Yet their peacemaking is not purely altruistic in which women sacrifice themselves for men’s benefits or for their families and communities. Many commentators ask: Are these women defenders of peace and conciliation? Or are they ruthless survivors who use the threat of violence for their own self-interest? In our judgment this may be a false dichotomy. Both women protect their own interests but also those of the aggressors whom they tame. It is no detriment to Abigail or the Woman of Abel that they will benefit from restraining violence and these are not to be treated as ulterior motives that vitiate their virtue. So too the fact that David and Joab gain political advantages from refraining from violence does not reduce them to Machiavellian self-serving politicians who use ethics only for propaganda. The Biblical ethics taught in the Wisdom tradition has always gone hand in hand with self-interest. Thus, the Deuteronomic Wisdom literature describes God as giving Israel laws “for our own good all the days, so we survive” (Deut 6:24). Ambiguities There is some ambiguity as to the political position of the town of Abel. Was the Woman of Abel protecting innocent lives or trying to save guilty ones? It is clear that Sheba and his followers went

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel to that place. (2 Sam 20:14).34 Did this mean that the community of Abel was known to be sympathetic to Sheba’s cause? 2 Sam 20:2 indicates that “all the men of Israel left David and followed Sheba son of Bikhri.” That Joab seems content to leave Abel Beth-maacah after Sheba’s death, and that the citizens of Abel were openly complicit in Sheba’s death, however suggests that Abel was not a hotbed of rebellion. Perhaps Abel potentially was in the rebel camp, but when faced with its being razed and its inhabitants killed, it changed allegiances. As in the case of David and Nabal, David (here represented by Joab) cannot be seen to be attacking those who are guiltless. Likewise, there is some ambiguity in that Abigail presents herself as guilty but later tries to save David from spilling innocent lives as a bloody tyrant. Closing Words Early and late in David’s career he (or his representative) comes into contact with a strong-minded woman who, at some considerable risk to her own life, dares to challenge what she suggests is are impetuous and short-sighted plans. While David and Joab’s proposed tactics might be immediately successful, they are unwise from a long-term strategic viewpoint. Once in 1 Samuel, and then once in 2 Samuel a determined woman is willing to speak up and to counter the aggression that she and her community are facing. In 1 Samuel 25, Abigail of Maon, the wife of Nabal, and then again in 2 Samuel 20, the unnamed Wise Woman of Abel (Abel Beth-maacah) openly and unambiguously oppose intentions by armed forces intending to annihilate their communities. Years separate these two narratives. Yet they both address moral-cum-religious-cum-political decisions about when and how best to address the matter of politically-motivated violence. The former instance seeks to protect David’s reputation and his goal to achieve royal power; the latter is an attempt to preserve and protect David’s rule. These women, Abigail of Maon and the Wise Woman of Abel, each using “weapons of the weak,” dare “to speak truth to power.” On the face of it, each woman, stands unarmed and alone. They are in an inferior position compared to the heavily armed forces that face them. They rely on their courage and the suasion of the longer-term wisdom represented by their arguments. In principle and

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Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel in practice, they are not opposed to the use of violence as a tactic, they just counsel a more strategic approach to achieve long-term goals. Through their speeches, each woman succeeds in moderating violence in their particular situations, thereby protecting their homes and communities. Both appeal to political reason and self-restraint rather than the exercise of brute force or indiscriminate expression of anger. They speak truth to power but not as purists without self-interest, not without making compromises and coalitions with power sources. Both use weapons of verbal suasion but neither is as audacious as Abraham’s dialogue with God in Genesis 18, nor of Nathan’s subterfuge in 2 Samuel 12 when he (at least initially) indirectly accuses David of immorality. Rather these two women boldly imply that both in the short and long term, it is better ethically and politically to refrain from spilling innocent blood.

1 Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch, From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths & Legends. Trans. Valarie Zakovitch. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press/Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2012), 250. 2 Of course, there is a different way of considering Nabal’s actions. Is he rebelling against the authority of the local warlord of the area, i.e. David who is forcing his “protective services” on Nabal? Or is Nabal loyal to Saul and therefore a class antagonist against David and the debtors? Halbertal and Holmes write that “Nabal’s refusal to fork over the requested gifts seethed with class superiority and insolence.” Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes. The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Book of Samuel. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017), 60. Another argument is that this is a challenge to Nabal’s political authority. Jon D. Levenson and Baruch Halpern, “The Political Import of David’s Marriages.” Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980), 513 [507–518]. 3 Nun-Vet-Lamed, Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Bible. [BDB]. (Oxford: OUP, 1907), 614-15. Adam Stewart Brown, “Discovering David in Light of 1 Samuel 25: A Narrative Critical Reading of 1 Samuel 24-26”. Master’s Thesis submission, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton Ontario, 2009, 77-79. https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/10305/1/fulltext.pdf 4 Rachel E. Adelman, The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible. (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015), 153 n.5. 5 Alice Bach, “The Pleasure of Her Text,” The Pleasure of Her Text: Feminist Readings of Biblical and Historical Texts, Alice Bach, ed. (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990), 29. 6 J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel: A Full Interpretation Based on Stylistic and Structural Analyses, Vol. 2, Aasen: The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1986, 509-10. 7 Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible. (New York: Schocken, 2002), 58. 8 J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel: A Full Interpretation Based on Stylistic and Structural Analyses, Vol. 1. Aasen: The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1981, 334. The quote which follows is Fokkelman’s translation, 333. 9 L. Juliana M. Claassens, Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament. (Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier/Liturgical , 2016), 3-4. Claassens’ direct reference is to Abigail and Rizpah (2 Sam 21). Her 22 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

description, however, applies also to the Wise Woman of Abel who appears literally in the prior chapter in 2 Samuel. 10 Claassens, 28. 11 Claassens, 30. 12 James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985). Claassens refers to Scott, xvi. 13 “We speak to power in three senses: To those who hold high places in our national life and bear the terrible responsibility of making decisions for war or peace. To the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority. To the idea of Power itself, and its impact on Twentieth Century life.” Speak Truth to Power: A Study of International Conflict Prepared for the American Friends Service Committee. A Quaker Search of an Alternative to Violence. American Friends Service Committee, 1955, iv. https://www.afsc.org/document/speak-truth-to-power-0 14 Are “good women” supposed to be self-sacrificing for the greater welfare, supporting their husbands’ battles for the patriotic honor of their community or may women place their self-interest above male ends? May such women still be regarded as virtuous if they act in a self-serving manner and undermine the male hegemony on political and military decisions? 15 https://www.thoughtyoushouldseethis.com/post/67088732570/when-we-speak-truth-to-power-we-are- ignored-at Jeremy Hammond’s sentencing statement to the court, after being tried for hacking activities. November 15, 2013. 16 Other examples could include Elijah’s challenging words to King Ahab (1 Kgs 18) and Jeremiah’s frequent words to those in power. Both put their lives on the line by confronting those with power and might. 17 Uriel Simon, “The Poor Man’s Ewe-lamb: An Example of a Juridical Parable,” Biblica 48 (1967), 207-42. 18 Frymer-Kensky, 318. 19 This situation of the dialogue between the Wise Woman of Abel and King David’s general Joab, contrasts with an earlier encounter with David when he was in dialogue with the Wise Woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14). In the earlier case the woman met David in a private consultation; here the action takes place where many can hear their words. Earlier the Tekoite is able through her words to convince David to set aside the interest of the society as a whole in favor of the interests of one man [Absalom], and the result is [Absalom’s] rebellion. In the present chapter the wise woman of Abel . . . tells Joab what to do, [she] counsels the sacrifice of one man in the interests of the society as a whole, and the result is the prevention of a rebellion. P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. II Samuel, Anchor Bible, (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984), 431. With Joab there is a “‘public epilogue’ to the story of [Absalom’s] revolt, [by way of contrast earlier there was] . . . a ‘private prologue.’ . . . In both cases the fate of a man who causes trouble for Israel ... is decided.” McCarter, 350- 51. 20 Halbertal and Holmes, 61. As we explain further on in this article, the Abigail episode is framed by chapters 24 and 26, where David on two occasions could have killed Saul, but he refrains from doing so. He chooses not to kill God’s anointed ruler, Saul. 21 Fokkelman, Vol. 2, 501. 22 Adelman, 157. 23 Claudia V. Camp, “The Wise Women of 2 Samuel: A Role Model for Women in Ancient Israel?” Women in the Hebrew Bible, Alice Bach, Ed., (New York: Routledge, 1999), 196, 197, 199 [195-207]. Reprinted from the Catholic Bible Quarterly, 42 (January 1981), 14-29. Camp’s focus is on the figures in 2 Samuel. Nonetheless her observations also describe Abigail’s actions. 23 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

24 Benjamin J. M. Johnson. “Character as Interpretive Crux in the Book of Samuel,” Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel. (Eds. K. Bodner and B. J. M. Johnson), London: T&T Clark, 2020, 8. 25 Fokkelman, Vol. 1, 332. 26 Frymer-Kensky, 58-59. 27 Frymer-Kensky, 59. 28 Frymer-Kensky, 61. 29 Frymer-Kensky, 60-61. 30 Robert Alter, The David Story, (New York: Norton, 1999), 156 31 Frymer-Kensky, 321. 32 Jon D. Levenson, “1 Samuel as Literature and as History, CBQ 40.1 (1978), 23 [11-28]. 33 Adelman, 153. 34 It is likely that Beerites should be Bikhrites. Hans Wilhelm Hertzberg, I and II Samuel. OTL. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), 369; McCarter, 428.

WORKS CITED

Adelman, Rachel E. The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015.

Alter, Robert. The David Story. New York: Norton, 1999.

Bach. Alice. “The Pleasure of Her Text,” The Pleasure of Her Text: Feminist Readings of Biblical and Historical Texts, Alice Bach, ed. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990.

Babylonian Talmud. Megillah. Translated under the editorship of I. Epstein. London, UK: Soncino, 1961 (1938).

Brown, Adam Stewart. “Discovering David in Light of 1 Samuel 25: A Narrative Critical Reading of 1 Samuel 24-26.” Master’s Thesis submission, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton Ontario, 2009, 77-79. https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/10305/1/fulltext.pdf

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Bible. [BDB]. Oxford: OUP, 1907.

Camp, Claudia V. “The Wise Women of 2 Samuel: A Role Model for Women in Ancient Israel?” Women in the Hebrew Bible, Alice Bach, Ed. New York: Routledge, 1999. Reprinted from the Catholic Bible Quarterly, 42 (January 1981.)

Claassens, L. Juliana M. Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament. Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier/Liturgical, 2016. 24 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Fokkelman, Jan. P. Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel: A Full Interpretation Based on Stylistic and Structural Analyses, Vol. 1. Aasen: The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1981.

_____ Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel: A Full Interpretation Based on Stylistic and Structural Analyses, Vol. 2. Aasen: The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1986.

Halbertal, Moshe, and Stephen Holmes. The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Book of Samuel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.

Hertzberg, Hans Wilhelm. I and II Samuel. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964, 369; P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. II Samuel, Anchor Bible. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.

Johnson, Benjamin J. M. “Character as Interpretive Crux in the Book of Samuel,” Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel. Eds. K. Bodner and B. J. M. Johnson. London: T&T Clark, 2020.

Frymer-Kensky, Tikvah. Reading the Women of the Bible. New York: Schocken, 2002.

Levenson, Jon D. “1 Samuel as Literature and as History, CBQ 40.1 (1978), 11-28.

Levenson, Jon D. and Baruch Halpern, “The Political Import of David’s Marriages.” Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980): 507–518.

Scott, James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.

Shinan, Avigdor and Yair Zakovitch, From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths & Legends. Trans. Valarie Zakovitch. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press/Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2012.

Simon, Uriel. “The Poor Man’s Ewe-lamb: An Example of a Juridical Parable,” Biblica 48 (1967), 236 [207-42]. https://www.afsc.org/document/speak-truth-to-power-0

Speak Truth to Power: A Study of International Conflict Prepared for the American Friends Service Committee. A Quaker Search of an Alternative to Violence. American Friends Service Committee, 1955, iv. https://www.thoughtyoushouldseethis.com/post/67088732570/when-we-speak-truth-to-power- we-are-ignored-at 25 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Abigail of Maon and The Wise Woman of Abel

Jeremy Hammond’s sentencing statement to the court, after being tried for hacking activities. November 15, 2013.

26 Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal Volume 17 Number 2 (2020) ISSN 1209-9392 © 2021 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.