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The acts, condemnation and punishment of Israel, here viewed and spoken of as a woman, tell us a great deal about the society of ancient Israel. The metaphoric woman in Ezekiel 16 is harshly punished for exercising her sexuality, and for defiling another's property, specifically her husband's. Passages such as this one clearly evoke male fears of female sexuality, and thus, female power. Her body is not her own, either in life or in death. She is punished for the acts that she commits with her flesh, flesh that she apparently has no rights to. Her body is not even her own in death, for it is cut to pieces by her enraged spouse. Her punishment echoes that of the Levite's concubine. Like the concubine, she is exposed and naked and then cut to pieces. In both of these cases, the mutilation of the body serves as further humiliation. The Levite was angry with his concubine and had leveled accusations of adultery against her. He gave her over to a crowd of men to be raped and, when she had been left for dead, used her mutilated body as the impetus for war. Phyllis Trible has suggested that the Levite himself killed her in order to use her very flesh as propaganda, much like the prophets used the flesh of their metaphoric victims as propaganda.
Ezekiel 23 echoes a similar message of female sexuality and male rage. In this passage, two sisters, named Oholah and Oholibah, representing Samaria and Jerusalem exercise their sexuality and are harshly punished for it. The women are accused of lust and sexual promiscuity. This text, like the others discussed, shows clear signs of female humiliation. Van Dijk-Hemmes has suggested that these women were not voluntarily promiscuous, but were rather the victims of rape and abuse. Oholah, or Samaria, is accused and punished for her actions, in much the same way we have seen in both Isaiah and Ezekiel 16. She is stripped naked and then killed. Her sister, Oholibah, or Jerusalem, even after seeing Oholah punished, continues her adulterous behavior. Her punishment is more severe than that of her sister. Her nose and ears are to be cut off, her children killed, she will be stripped naked and stoned. Such punishments were certainly not unheard of in Biblical times, as Deuteronomy 25:11, which prescribes the amputation of a hand as punishment, attests to. Go To Page: 1 |
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