Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

George, Joel 1:8 refers to the betrothed woman.
The "husband of your youth" is the husband whom you 
are betrothed to. The point here is that she was
betrothed but never married, i.e., still virginal.

Liz


> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Athas [mailto:gathas AT globalfreeway.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:24 AM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: BETHULAH - virgin
> 
> 
> Shoshanna,
> 
> I think Liz was responding not to your statement, but to my 
> statement that any woman,
> whether previously married or not, who was eligible for marriage, 
> was a BETULAH. That is,
> women who were married, but had not given birth to children and 
> yet whose husbands had
> died, went back to their paternal household and became "virgins" 
> again -- that is, they
> could remarry. That is essentially what Naomi urges Ruth and 
> Orpah to do. Naomi, however,
> who has given birth, cannot return to her paternal house for 
> remarriage. She can no longer
> be a "virgin" -- that is, a single woman eligible for marriage -- 
> she is now a widow.
> "Widow" refers to a woman whose relatives have died so that she 
> is no longer attached to
> any household. Hence, the need to defend the orphan and the widow 
> -- those who had no
> social protection in the ancient world.
> 
> Joel 1:8 is the classic example of a married woman whose husband 
> is dead being called a
> BETULAH.
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> GEORGE ATHAS
> (Sydney, Australia)
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> Tel Dan Inscription Website
> http://members.nbci.com/gathas/teldan.htm
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> 
> 
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: [lizfried AT umich.edu]
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
> $subst('Email.Unsub')
> To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.
>