There are two women that I forgot to mention earlier, both of them in the book of Judges: Delilah, and Jephthah’s daughter. I think pretty much all of us are familiar with Delilah, but I do want to point something out. She asked Samson four times what the secret of his strength was—how could he be defeated, and the first three times he lied to her about it. After she tested those ideas, she accused him of lying to her, and sobbed big crocodile tears and eventually got him to tell her the truth. Delilah, like Jezebel, was loyal to her people; Samson should have realized that. Think about it, if someone asked you how to teach them how to use a gun, and as soon as they learned how to aim it, they started pointing it at you, would you then teach them how to load it?
Jephthah’s daughter is an interesting case. Jephthah was something of an outcast, but when Israel got involved in a war, they decided that Jephthah was the one to lead the army. He prayed about it, and vowed to God that, if they won the war, then, upon his return, whatever came out of his house to greet him, he would offer up as a sacrifice before the Lord. I assume that he had several affectionate dogs that he was fond of, that would normally race to meet him whenever he came home. As it happened, though, when he returned, his daughter wanted to make a special greeting for him, so she tied up the dogs (I suppose) and she went out the door, dancing, and playing timbrels. He became very angry with her, but she was wise enough to realize that if he had made a vow unto God, that he needed to keep it. Some have said that he didn’t really offer her as a sacrifice, but that he simply disowned her as his daughter. Even that would be a high price to pay. The point of the story would seem to be to be careful when you make a vow, it may end up costing you more dearly than you expect; but that was Jephthah’s mistake, not his daughter’s.
There is also the witch at Endor, who King Saul tracked down just before the battle in which he lost his life. Interestingly enough, although the Bible refers to her as a woman with a familiar spirit (which would suggest that she was an evil woman), she became concerned for Saul’s health and fed him and was kind to him (so, was she a kind witch? That’s not exactly what we read about in fairy tales).
And there is Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar was the Egyptian who ended up owning Joseph after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph, but Joseph refused her. So, instead, she accused him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had him imprisoned (the fury of a woman scorned). In prison, Joseph met Pharaoh’s butler, who later told Pharaoh about Joseph, which led to Joseph being made second to Pharaoh. This, in turn, led to the saving of Joseph’s family. I think that we have to apply to Potiphar’s wife the same philosophy that Joseph voiced to his brothers: “…ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.”
In any case, I think that completes the summary of the women in the Bible. There are more, but I don’t think I’ve left any out that would seem to have a major impact, one way or the other. Of the ones that I’ve listed, it would seem that only Delilah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and possibly Potiphar’s wife, and the Witch at Endor, were actually evil. Many of the others simply made mistakes along the way, just like the men in the Bible. That’s an interesting thing about the Bible. Most of the heroes of the Bible are depicted as flawed, imperfect creatures. The term, “Achilles heel” has become popular in part because Achilles was one of the few heroes in Greek mythology that had an actual weakness. All of the people in the Bible had weaknesses. A lot of the men got themselves in trouble with women: Adam let Eve lead him astray, Samson had his Delilah, David had his Bathsheba, Solomon had his many wives and concubines…Yet in most of these cases, the women were not evil, they were just there.
Apostle Paul wrote once that he had a thorn in his flesh. Some have suggested that Paul’s thorn (or his problem) was that he hated women. I think that if that were the case, then he would not have considered that a problem, and he would not have prayed that God remove it. I also think that God would have healed that, because God wouldn’t want Paul, as a leader in the church, hating women—or God would have removed Paul from his position. If anything, I think Paul was aware that he (like most of the rest of us men) had a weakness for women. I think he worried that women would exert undue influence on the church, not necessarily out of malice, but just because too many men would let them. I think he was really just trying to warn us that we, as men, need to take our marching orders from God, not our wives, or our girlfriends. Not to suggest that we shouldn’t love and to cherish them, or that we should ignore their needs, or even their desires, but to understand that we are God’s servants, and, ultimately, we answer to God for what we do (and that includes how we treat the women in our lives).
Jephthah’s daughter is an interesting case. Jephthah was something of an outcast, but when Israel got involved in a war, they decided that Jephthah was the one to lead the army. He prayed about it, and vowed to God that, if they won the war, then, upon his return, whatever came out of his house to greet him, he would offer up as a sacrifice before the Lord. I assume that he had several affectionate dogs that he was fond of, that would normally race to meet him whenever he came home. As it happened, though, when he returned, his daughter wanted to make a special greeting for him, so she tied up the dogs (I suppose) and she went out the door, dancing, and playing timbrels. He became very angry with her, but she was wise enough to realize that if he had made a vow unto God, that he needed to keep it. Some have said that he didn’t really offer her as a sacrifice, but that he simply disowned her as his daughter. Even that would be a high price to pay. The point of the story would seem to be to be careful when you make a vow, it may end up costing you more dearly than you expect; but that was Jephthah’s mistake, not his daughter’s.
There is also the witch at Endor, who King Saul tracked down just before the battle in which he lost his life. Interestingly enough, although the Bible refers to her as a woman with a familiar spirit (which would suggest that she was an evil woman), she became concerned for Saul’s health and fed him and was kind to him (so, was she a kind witch? That’s not exactly what we read about in fairy tales).
And there is Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar was the Egyptian who ended up owning Joseph after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph, but Joseph refused her. So, instead, she accused him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had him imprisoned (the fury of a woman scorned). In prison, Joseph met Pharaoh’s butler, who later told Pharaoh about Joseph, which led to Joseph being made second to Pharaoh. This, in turn, led to the saving of Joseph’s family. I think that we have to apply to Potiphar’s wife the same philosophy that Joseph voiced to his brothers: “…ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.”
In any case, I think that completes the summary of the women in the Bible. There are more, but I don’t think I’ve left any out that would seem to have a major impact, one way or the other. Of the ones that I’ve listed, it would seem that only Delilah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and possibly Potiphar’s wife, and the Witch at Endor, were actually evil. Many of the others simply made mistakes along the way, just like the men in the Bible. That’s an interesting thing about the Bible. Most of the heroes of the Bible are depicted as flawed, imperfect creatures. The term, “Achilles heel” has become popular in part because Achilles was one of the few heroes in Greek mythology that had an actual weakness. All of the people in the Bible had weaknesses. A lot of the men got themselves in trouble with women: Adam let Eve lead him astray, Samson had his Delilah, David had his Bathsheba, Solomon had his many wives and concubines…Yet in most of these cases, the women were not evil, they were just there.
Apostle Paul wrote once that he had a thorn in his flesh. Some have suggested that Paul’s thorn (or his problem) was that he hated women. I think that if that were the case, then he would not have considered that a problem, and he would not have prayed that God remove it. I also think that God would have healed that, because God wouldn’t want Paul, as a leader in the church, hating women—or God would have removed Paul from his position. If anything, I think Paul was aware that he (like most of the rest of us men) had a weakness for women. I think he worried that women would exert undue influence on the church, not necessarily out of malice, but just because too many men would let them. I think he was really just trying to warn us that we, as men, need to take our marching orders from God, not our wives, or our girlfriends. Not to suggest that we shouldn’t love and to cherish them, or that we should ignore their needs, or even their desires, but to understand that we are God’s servants, and, ultimately, we answer to God for what we do (and that includes how we treat the women in our lives).
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