Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT globalfreeway.com.au>]

In the ANE, people held various socio-legal statuses, many of which we would 
never think
of as particularly distinguishing today in a legal way. One such socio-legal 
status was
the widow ('almanah). Today, we have "Mr", "Miss" "Ms" "Mrs" "Dr", etc. 1 Ki 
7:14 wants to
point out that the woman involved in this narrative had the legal status of a 
widow. She
is not just any unidentified woman -- she is a woman with the legal status of 
"widow". To
us that seems a peripheral point to highlight, but everyone in the ancient 
world was known
by their legal status ("father", "mother", "virgin", "widow", etc). It should 
not come as
any surprise, then, to find many people identified by their legal status.

Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tel Dan Inscription Website
http://members.xoom.com/gathas/teldan.htm
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::