Enter Lachish

I would like to use the King and Stager image of the house for my second illustration. I will scan this and other pictures before break.

         As I head into the gate of Lachish with Midyan I notice that the great amount of energy that is always around the gate seems to be multiplied today. Everyone was talking, there were royal people sitting on raised platforms, there were tons of people milling around talking, and the threshing floor was completely covered. One of the royal men who I recognized as ______ got up to speak. “Men and women of Judah I am Eliab Uzson as I am sure you are all here to talk about the invasion Rehoboam. We of Lachish will stand strong against his invasion, we will be like a house made of ashlar and resist their push, we will not be like a brick wall in an earth quake.” So that explains why everyone is here. People are anxious about the invasion. People want to store as much food as possible, so that is why the threshing floor is so full. The more grain they are able to thresh now will mean more grain supply during the invasion. People must not be rushing to fill their cisterns because they are relying on the well.

         Despite the scare of an invasion, I felt relieved. This means that my son and I will stay together because Balak (patriarch) will not separate us because no one will be leaving the city because of the invasion, rather people will be taking refuge in the city. That is what Midyan and I will be doing. I will ask Balak for permission to stay in his house during the invasion. As we walk past the gate and into the city, the maze of streets are alive with preparations for Rehoboam, a man that has been invading Judah with his army. He has already taken over some of the surrounding towns and villages. We arrive at Balak’s house, he is the illustration of being put together. For example his house’s plaster is always in tact. Just like the plaster he demands that his Bet-ab be in the same impeccable shape. When his 1^st son died, my husband, it seemed more annoying than sad to him. He did not want to deal with a widow and a young boy milling about in his Bet-ab.

 

Fig. 7 A threshing floor in Santorini in Greece

Zurek, Stan. "Threshing Floor." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T hreshing_floor >.

Avraham, Faust, and Shlomo Bunimovitz. "The Four Room House: Emobdying Ancient Israel." Near Eastern Achaeology 2nd ser. 66.1 (2003): 22-31. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.

Possible new Direction?

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It would make more sense for the house to be outside the settlement near a spring.

            It was the time of year that my husband would normally have been making pottery, but the clay pit next to the house was empty. His trade was going to die with him for he had never taught Midyan (our son) to make pottery. It was a great way to feel wealthier, for the wealthy people in town would give us food for his pottery. We were never malnourished. I regret not making Midyan learn the trade. Now our whole settlement seemed useless. We had a kiln that just sits there in the yard, the entire clay pit, and a large supply of clay nearby that will not be used again. The times seem dire for us.

            It was time to visit the leader of my husband’s Bet Ab who lived in Lachish. I wish I could go back to my family, but I must see his. He paid my family for the marriage, and had taken good care of me. We had delivered a son to our clan, and tried to have other sons and daughters of the clan. By law I was part of his Bet Ab now. I had a feeling about what he was going to say, where he wanted me to work in Lachish, and my son to help one of his uncle’s outside the settlement. I do not want to separate from my son.

Figure 5: An example of a kiln that could have been used to fire pottery. This is a vertical (updraft) kiln. -http://www.itarp.uiuc.edu/atam/teaching/gvexhibit.html

Figure 6: A reconstruction of Lachish.

- http://www.biblebasics.info/natcit/lachish.htm

Meyers, Carol. "The Roots of Restriction: Women in Biblical Israel." The Biblical Archaeologist 41.3 (1978): 91-103. JSTOR. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.corn ell.edu/stable/3209454?&Search=yes&searchText=%22family+life%22&searchText=widow&searchText=lachish&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dlachish%26f0%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3Dwidow%26f1%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q2%3D%2522family%2Blife%2522%26f2%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=6&returnArticleService=showFullText>.

Herrmann, Siegfred. A History of Israel in Old Testament Times. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981. Print.