King Saul—A Bungler from the Beginning
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Footnotes
See Jan P. Fokkelman,“Saul and David—Crossed Fates,” BR 05:03.
Endnotes
This translation of the verse has been questioned because it can be used to deny equality to women. Instead of “a helper fit for him,” a better translation might be, “a power equal to him,” See R. David Freedman, “Woman, a Power Equal to Man,” BAR 09:01.
Phyllis Trible in Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1994), p. 79, speculates that the concubine may have still been alive at the time of her dismemberment. In this, she echoes Robert Polzin, Moses and the Deuteronomist (New York: Seabury Press, 1980). This is possible, but not relevant to my point. But see Judges 20:5.