Peninnah

[zeborah]

Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:2-7) is the fortunate one of a certain man's two wives: she has children (at least four -- she has both sons and daughters), but her rival has none. She's not a good winner, and takes every opportunity to rub it in until her rival's in tears.

Of course then things change, history's written by the winners, and this book isn't about any of Peninnah's sons -- so who knows? Maybe she isn't as spiteful as is made out, or maybe she's got reason to be: the writer does admit that her husband gives her rival a double portion of meat "because he loved her".

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

It seems like a lot of Biblical stories about marriage and family could be summed up as, "Don't play favorites with your wives and offspring."

[zeborah]

Heh. Also, "If someone *is* playing favourites and you're losing out as a result, throwing the favourite down a well isn't going to help."

[coraa.livejournal.com]

"Although tying goatskins to your forearms and pretending you're him might."

[zeborah]

Goats are useful!

Trying to trick your father into giving you the blessing meant for your brother? Use goatskins!

God's just told you you don't need to kill your son after all, leaving you with an empty altar in desperate need of a sacrifice? Look, there's a handy goat stuck in a bush right there!

Just sold your brother into slavery and need to convince your dad that a wild animal ate him? Drench his coat in goat's blood!

Your father the king has just put out a hit on your husband? Tip off hubby and delay the soldiers by making a decoy out of goat's hair. (But I'm still gathering bits of Michal's story: the cast-of-hundreds quality of Samuel and Kings makes this endeavour a tad more complex than it started.)

But wait, there's more! It slices, it dices-- Hm. No, wait, wrong way around: if you slice and dice it you can make a nice stew -- as long as you don't throw in any of its mother's milk, anyway.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

A reminder of why the "marriage must be one man and one woman" definition isn't strictly Biblical . . .

[zeborah]

I think the Biblical definition is "marriage must be one man and his possession(s)", about which - no matter how much meat he gives them - I have certain scruples.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I can't *imagine* why . . .

:-)