Violence Against Women in the Hebrew Bible
The Bible contains many instances of physical, sexual, and religious violence against women in biblical narratives, legal materials and prophetic rhetoric. The most brutal cases of sexual violence in narratives are often used to indicate significant dysfunction in society. These narratives of violence also treat women as the property of men. While many legal texts protect the rights of women, there are many laws that promote violence and blame the victim. The most pernicious example of violence against women appears in a number of prophetic books in which a marriage metaphor is employed. In these texts, God is described as a faithful husband and Israel (or Jerusalem) is described as a sexually promiscuous wife who is punished by exposure, beating, and rape. Only in recent decades have feminist readers of these texts pointed to the ways in which these texts reflect and reify violence against women.
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Sexual Violence Against Women in Biblical Narratives
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Other Cases of Violence Against Women in Biblical Narratives
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Violence Against Women in Biblical Law
While many legal texts protect the rights of women, many laws promote violence and blame the victim. Exodus 22:18 prescribes the death penalty only for a female sorcerer, even though both men and women practiced sorcery and other forms of divination. In Deuteronomy 22:22-23, if a man rapes a married woman within a town, the woman is put to death alongside the perpetrator of the crime. She is spared only if the rape occurs out in the countryside, where she cannot call out for help. According to Exodus 21:7, Israelite female slaves are not set free after six years of service as are male slaves.
Violence Against Women in Prophetic and Wisdom Literature
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Conclusions
The biblical texts reflect the attitudes and norms of ancient Near Eastern societies. We know very little about how women were treated by men in ancient Israel. Most female characters in the Bible are not victims of violence; they may not have the same access to power as men do, but they are not portrayed as victims. Female characters are often powerful actors in narratives. The most extreme cases of violence against women signify some larger dysfunction. Other cases simply seem to reflect the reality of the times in which these texts were written.
In the history of interpretation, these texts have been used to promote the idea that men have the right to use violence as a method of control over women. While the violence against women in the narrative material is explicit and easy to identify, violence through the language of metaphor is more insidious. It is easy to claim that “it’s just a metaphor,” but biblical commentators have read these texts with complete empathy for God’s (the husband’s) perspective. They build further upon these texts, describing how lucky Israel is because God does not ultimately abandon her. Only in recent decades have feminist readers of these texts pointed to the ways in which they reflect and reify violence against women. These texts suggest that women are generally the property of men, and as such, may be controlled, manipulated, and brutalized.
Anderson, Cheryl B. Women, Ideology and Violence: Critical Theory and the Construction of Gender in the Book of the Covenant and the Deuteronomic Law. London: Bloomsbury, 2004.
Dobbs-Allsopp, F.W. Weep, O Daughter Zion: A Study of the City –Lament Genre in the Hebrew Bible. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1993.
Exum, Cheryl J. “The Ethics of Biblical Violence against Women,” in The Bible in Ethics: The Second Sheffield Colloquium, eds. J. W. Rogerson, M. Davies, and M. D. Carroll R. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995, 248–271.
Kalmanofsky Amy, ed. Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts. Oregon: 2020.
Meyers, Carol. “Rape or Remedy? Sex and Violence in Prophetic Marriage Metaphors.” In Prophetie in Israel: Beiträge des Symposiums “Das Altes Testament und die Kultur der Moderne,” anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags Gerhard von Rads [1901–1971], Heidelberg, 18.21. Oktober 2001), edited by Hugh Williamson, Konrad Schmid, and Irmtraud Fischer, 185-198. Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2003.
Muller, Ilse. “Prophetic Violence. The Marital Metaphor and its Impact on Female and Male Readers.” In Prophetie in Israel: Beiträge des Symposiums “Das Altes Testament und die Kultur der Moderne,” anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags Gerhard von Rads [1901–1971], Heidelberg, 18.21. Oktober 2001), edited by Hugh Williamson, Konrad Schmid, and Irmtraud Fischer. Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2003.
Setel, T. Drorah. “Prophets and Pornography: Female Sexual Imagery in Hosea,” in Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, ed. L. M. Russell. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1985.
Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. Philadelphia: Fortress: 1984.
Weems, Renita J. Battered Love: Marriage, Sex and Violence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995.
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