Wives and daughters

It’s interesting to read about the women’s role in David’s time.

Already, in the first two chapters, we encounter references to the women. The two verses in chapter one appear to cast the women in the role of

responders (reflecting the mood of the community), and receivers:

I Sam 1: 20 “Tell it not…lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice; lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph”

Circumcision was an indication of purity. (See Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book “Infidel – my life”, for insight into this practice today.)

I Sam 1: 24 “Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet…”

In chapter two, we meet David’s two wives, Ahinoam (see I Sam 14:50) and the intelligent and attractive Abigail, who we first met in I Samuel 25:3. I think we can assume that marriages were often strategic alliances, arranged to suit the men and to uphold the honour of the family “line”.  The women, often still girls, presumably had little or no say in the matter, and simply obeyed their parent’s wishes.   

Julie Swannell