{"id":61046,"date":"2019-08-13T14:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T11:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61046"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:23:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T09:23:01","slug":"to-suffer-a-mothers-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/to-suffer-a-mothers-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"To Suffer A Mother\u2019s Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[700,381,604,484,503],"acf":{"old_id":"61046","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":41525,"related_cahpter":"284","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And to prove a mother\u2019s love to be the most powerful force in a book about men\u2019s power","content":"

In 2 Samuel David famously cries, \u201cAbsalom, Absalom!\u201d But when I read this book, I grieve for the women. For<\/span> Michal, who falls victim to men\u2019s political power<\/span><\/a>. For<\/span> Bathsheba, who suffers in silence<\/span><\/a>. For<\/span> Tamar, whose life ends where male entitlement begins<\/span><\/a>. For these women\u2014and for all of us\u2014I have dedicated this eight-part series to the women of 2 Samuel. Today I conclude this project with one of the book\u2019s most heartbreaking tales\u2014as faced by one of its most stalwart women\u2014Rizpah the mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we enter 2 Samuel 21, David\u2019s kingdom has been suffering a famine for three years. The remedy, David is told, is to hand over seven of Saul\u2019s sons to the Gibeonites to be sacrificed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the king took the two sons of Rizpah\u2026 whom she had born to Saul… and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul\u2026 And he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the hill before the LORD… And they were put to death in the first days of the harvest\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Focusing on the personal, 2 Samuel 21 tells the story of two mothers who lose every last one of their sons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And Rizpah\u2026 took sackcloth and [made a little tent for herself] from the beginning of the harvest till the waters poured down on them from the heavens, and she did not allow the fowl of the heavens to settle on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rizpah\u2019s sons were brutally murdered. Impaled and strung up for all to see. And when no one took their bodies down\u2014when the Gibeonites and David alike failed to honor the dead by interning their bodies\u2014Rizpah sat vigil. The grieving mother made herself a home on the hillside beneath her dead sons and stayed by their side, protecting them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Biblical scholar Robert Alter points out that \u201cthe beginning of the barley harvest,\u201d when the murders took place, \u201cwould be in April. The bereaved Rizpah then watches over the corpses throughout the hot months of the summer, until the rains return\u2026 in the fall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From spring until fall, a mother sits beside the bodies of her murdered sons. Beneath their shadows, bearing the unimaginable weight of a mother\u2019s grief, she sits until she sees justice done for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Rizpah might be<\/span> Sybrina Fulton dedicating her life to fighting for justice<\/span><\/a> after the senseless murder of her son Trayvon Martin. She could be any mother who lost her child to gun violence, to police brutality or homophobia, to forced separations at the hands of ICE. In the wake of the greatest loss a mother can experience\u2014and amidst unimaginable suffering\u2014Rizpah was at once a tragic figure and a hero, her mother\u2019s love quietly proving to be the most powerful force in a book about men\u2019s power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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