While divorces were given almost at the will of the man, yet he could not without

formality at once eject the woman fromhishouse.

Hemustgivehera"writingofdivorce- ment," which set forth the fact that she had
been his wife. Thus was she protected from subsequent suspicion that
shehadlivedwithamanunlawfully. Wivesofbond- servants were to go out free with
their husbands on the seventh year of service, unless the master himself had
given the wife to his manservant, in which case the woman and her children still
belonged to the master.

Daughters were allowed inheritance as well as sons, though in earlier times than
those of the kings they did not inherit their father's property except there were no
sons. Fathers were not allowed to discriminate against a firstborn son and pass the
inheritance to another because the mother of the oldest child happened to have lost
favor in his eyes.

Laws forbidding unchastity and vice were explicit and severe. One who had taken
criminal advantage of an- other's daughter was to marry her and pay the father
the usual dowry; he was to be amerced fifty shekels of silver, the ordinary
if not,

dowry a husband sus- pected his wife of being unfaithful to him, an

of virgins. If
elaborate, but not severe, ordeal was laid upon the woman, called "drinking the
waters of jealousy." If she passed this ex- amination successfully, her husband had
no power further to punish her; if not, she was to suffer for her shame.

The widow and the fatherless were given special con- sideration under the law.
In the feast days when the people's hearts were merry and they weie rejoicing in
46 WOMAN
the increase of their lands, the widow wasnot to be for- gotten. In business
transactions the people were to take heed that the widow suffer not injustice. Her
garments could never be taken in pledge, and judges were enjoined
toseethatnoviolencewasdonetoherrights. Thefallen sheaf in the harvest field, the
forgotten gleanings of the olive trees, the droppings of the vintage were not to be
withheld from her.

How deep-seated this sense of obligation to the widow

wasinIsraelmaybediscoveredintheBookofJob, The friends who visited Job in his
bewildering grief could find no more probable cause for so severe a divine
chastise- ment upon the arch-sufferer than that Job had neglected the widow or

taken her in pledge. One effect of the atti- tude of the customary law toward
widows discovered in a most signal way in the Second Book of Maccabees,
is

which relates that in the period of which it tells, about B. C. 150, it was customary
to lay up large sums of money in the temple treasury for the relief of widows
and of fatherless children.

Such women as Miriam and Deborah were factors to be reckoned with in the
politicalmovements of their times. So it was with the prophetesses generally, for
just as the great prophets dealt with the politics of state, so a prophet- ess could
not always escape the problems of statesmanship to which her time might give
Both prophet and prophetess were looked upon as the chosen spokesmen for
birth.
Jehovah. Becauseofthis,Huldahactedasasortofprime minister and adviser of both
king and high priests in their Jehovistic reforms during the reign of Josiah.

That women generally took a deep interest in political matters may be perceived
in the way in which the ex- ploits of David appealed to the imaginations of the
women when Saul's star was setting and David's appearing above

—
THE DAYS OF THE KINGS 47

the horizon; for young women went out to meet the com- ing hero and king with
musical instruments, singing a song whose refrain was:

" Saul hath slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands."

The power of the feminine idea may be forcefully seen in the very common
conception of the nation itself as a youngwoman. Bothprophetandpoet-

^andtheprophets were usually poets — refer many times to the "daughter of Zion,"
meaning the people of Israel.

The prophet Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruc- tion of the army of Babylon,
says: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman "
who is abouttoberavagedbytheinvader. AndIsaiah,seeingthe time at hand for the

people to return from Babylonish exile, cries out: " Loose thyself, O captive dau