Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 66:1 (NA 2015)
Article: What’s Wrong With ‘Playing The Harlot’? The Meaning Of זנה In Judges 19:2
Author: Isabelle Hamley

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What’s Wrong With ‘Playing The Harlot’?
The Meaning Of זנה In Judges 19:2

Isabelle Hamley

Summary

The story of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19 arouses horror—and very mixed scholarly interpretations. The silent concubine is cast in many shades, from silent victim to shady character on a par with the morally troubled Levite. Characterisation hinges on understanding the nature of the concubine’s actions in verse 2. Was she unfaithful, literally or metaphorically? Or simply angry, as in the Greek text? Despite a long tradition of exonerating the concubine from sexual misconduct, the debate has been reopened, unexpectedly, by feminist critics asking why we should automatically assume she is innocent of all wrongdoing, in a text where virtually all characters are morally ambiguous at best. This paper will argue that the Masoretic Text offers the best reading of the story, consistent with subtle narration and moral complexity.

1. Introduction

The story of the concubine of Gibeah in the book of Judges is relatively well-known among scholars, but seldom preached on or referred to in popular worship; even among scholars, it is often subsumed into a discussion of the civil war that follows,1 dissolved into intertext,2 or even treated dismissively as part of an appendix to the main body of

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the book.3 Feminist scholars have revived interest in the text as a ‘text of terror’,4 one that highlights the plight of women in biblical times. It is an uneasy, ambiguous text, which has lent itself to many interpretations, depending on how it is seen to fit—or not—with the rest of the book, and what its moral message may be, given the conspicuous absence of God in this chapter.

Ambiguity sets in right from the start: who exactly is this nameless man? What is the significance of his being a Levite (following the sorry tale of Micah in chapters 17-18)? What is the exact status of the woman he takes as a פילגש (wife-concubine)?5 When we reach verse 2, what is the cause of their separation? MT reads: ותזנה עליו פילגשו. Many translations reflect MT with ‘she played the harlot against him’ (ASV, NASB), ‘she played the whore against him’ (KJV), ‘she di...

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