Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT goconnect.net>]

The unresponsiveness of Phinehas' wife indicates that she refuses to 
acknowledge the
child. In such cases, a refusal to acknowledge the child means that the child 
is unwanted
and would, therefore, be left out in a field either to die or for someone 
else to take and
care for (cf the imagery in Ezekiel 16). I suspect the implication in the 
narrative here
is that the babe was abandoned, just as the Ark had been.

A good book on social customs of this sort is Matthews & Benjamin, "Social 
World of
Ancient Israel".


Best regards,

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