Daughter Zion, Jerusalem Personified

We first meet Bat Tzion as YHWH’s defiant virgin daughter in Isaiah’s prophecy against the Assyrian king Sennacherib. The metaphor turns dark when Jerusalem is ravaged by the Babylonians.

Prof. Rabbi

Rachel Adelman

Prof. Rabbi

Rachel Adelman

Categories:

Tisha B’Av

The Woman in Lamentations

^{איכה א:א} אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם הָיְתָה כְּאַלְמָנָה רַּבָּתִי בַגּוֹיִם שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינוֹת הָיְתָה לָמַס.

^{Lam 1:1} How lonely sits the city that was once full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become subject to forced labor.^[1]

Eichah, the opening word of the book of Lamentations, is characteristic of biblical lament.^[2] It poses a rhetorical question to which there is no answer, expressive of dismay: “How is this possible…?” The narrator means to convey shock at the contrast between Jerusalem’s former glory and her present destitution.^[3]

It is sometimes rather weakly translated as “Alas!” (NJPS). Even the literal “How…[ʾeich]” is too weak. “Howl!” is more resonant, rimming the edge between language and silence,^[4] as in King Lear’s searing speech upon finding his beloved Cordelia dead:^[5]

“Howl, howl, howl, howl!

O you are men of stones,

Had I your tongues, and eyes, I’d use them so,

That Heav’ns vault should crack, O she is gone forever!” (Act V, scene x)

Yet, Eichah is a scroll full of words, conveying the full emotional depth of suffering, in part, through a woman’s voice: בַּת צִיּוֹן [Bat Tzion], literally “daughter Zion,” but often translated “fair Zion” or “dear Zion,”^[6] the feminine personification of Jerusalem.

^{איכה א:ו} וַיֵּצֵא מִן בַּת [מִבַּת] צִיּוֹן כָּל הֲדָרָהּ הָיוּ שָׂרֶיהָ כְּאַיָּלִים לֹא מָצְאוּ מִרְעֶה וַיֵּלְכוּ בְלֹא כֹחַ לִפְנֵי רוֹדֵף.

^{Lam 1:6} From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

A litany of female metaphors for the city follow the opening expression of dismay: “from a lonely widow to a degraded princess, to a whore to a rape victim, to a betrayed lover, to an abandoned wife.”^[7] What makes a woman such a powerful conduit for lament? In ancient times, women served as professional mourners, singing dirges and wailing at sites of mourning to invoke feelings of sorrow and dismay:

‏^{ירמיה ט:טז} כֹּה אָמַר יְ־הוָה צְבָאוֹת הִתְבּוֹנְנוּ וְקִרְאוּ לַמְקוֹנְנוֹת וּתְבוֹאֶינָה וְאֶל הַחֲכָמוֹת שִׁלְחוּ וְתָבוֹאנָה. ^ט:יז וּתְמַהֵרְנָה וְתִשֶּׂנָה עָלֵינוּ נֶהִי וְתֵרַדְנָה עֵינֵינוּ דִּמְעָה וְעַפְעַפֵּינוּ יִזְּלוּ מָיִם.

^{Jer 9:16 [NRSV 9:17]} Thus says YHWH of hosts: Consider and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come; ^9:17let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.^[8]

The wailing female voice, in pitch, timbre, rhythm, and emotional intensity, could crack open the human heart and heaven’s vault. Yet Bat Tzion, as a figure who voices lament in Eichah, also has a history.

The Origin of the Metaphor

The personification of Jerusalem or Zion as female may derive from the association of city-states in the ancient world with a patron goddess, as Athena, daughter of Zeus, is associated with the ancient Greek city of Athens.^[9] Like:

בַּת בָּבֶל, “Daughter Babylon/Chaldea” (Ps 137:8),^[10]

בַּת אֱדוֹם, Daughter Edom” (Lam 4:21–22), or

בַּת מִצְרָיִם, “Daughter Egypt” (Jer 46:11, 19, 24),

Bat Tzion does not mean “daughter of Zion,” but, rather “Zion as daughter (bat),” a title and a term of endearment.

Jerusalem is first introduced as Bat Tzion in Isaiah’s prophecy to King Hezekiah of Judah during the Assyrian siege by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E. (Isa 36–37, 2 Kgs 18–19). Here, Bat Tzion plays the role of a confident, even defiant daughter under the aegis of her protective father, YHWH:

^{ישׁעיה לז:כב} זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְ־הוָה עָלָיו בָּזָה לְךָ לָעֲגָה לְךָ בְּתוּלַת בַּת צִיּוֹן אַחֲרֶיךָ רֹאשׁ הֵנִיעָה בַּת יְרוּשָׁלִָם. ^לז:כג אֶת מִי חֵרַפְתָּ וְגִדַּפְתָּ וְעַל מִי הֲרִימוֹתָה קּוֹל וַתִּשָּׂא מָרוֹם עֵינֶיךָ אֶל קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Isa 37:22} This is the word that YHWH has spoken concerning him [Sennacherib]:^[11] She despises you, she scorns you [the Assyrian invader], virgin daughter Zion; she tosses her head behind your back, daughter Jerusalem.^[12] ^37:23 “Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!” (cf. 2 Kgs 19:20–22).^[13]

The walled city is personified here as “virgin daughter Zion” (betulat bat Tzion), and “daughter Jerusalem” (bat Yerushalayim). Bat, like betulah, suggests a young nubile girl or woman who has not yet married and is still under her father’s jurisdiction.^[14] In the patriarchal world of the Bible, the father’s honor is contingent on the daughter, and he is implicated if she is raped or debased.^[15]

As a virgin, Bat Tzion is depicted as initially impenetrable, as yet unviolated, for YHWH, as father, protects her: Bat Tzion defies the royal invader (here, the Assyrian army) who would penetrate her walls, pillage her treasures, and slay or carry away her people as slaves.^[16] The personification of the city and its inhabitants as Bat Tzion highlights Jerusalem’s cherished status under divine protection and may be traced the belief that YHWH would protect Zion, as the locus of the Temple and the divine abode forever.^[17]

In Lamentations, composed soon after the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E., the metaphor of Bat Tzion turns darkly upon itself when she (Jerusalem) is devastated, even ravaged:[18]

^{איכה א:ב} בָּכוֹ תִבְכֶּה בַּלַּיְלָה וְדִמְעָתָהּ עַל לֶחֱיָהּ אֵין לָהּ מְנַחֵם מִכָּל אֹהֲבֶיהָ כָּל רֵעֶיהָ בָּגְדוּ בָהּ הָיוּ לָהּ לְאֹיְבִים.

^{Lam 1:2} She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.

She holds YHWH culpable in her devastation:

^{איכה א:כא} שָׁמְעוּ כִּי נֶאֱנָחָה אָנִי אֵין מְנַחֵם לִי כָּל אֹיְבַי שָׁמְעוּ רָעָתִי שָׂשׂוּ כִּי אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ.

^{Lam 1:21a} They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it.

Moreover, as a figura, Bat Tzion sits alone in her grief, with no one to comfort her (as we hear again and again, e.g., 1:2, 7, 9, 16, 17). Gary Anderson observes that one of the dominant definitions of “to comfort,” in its ritual sense, is to “assume the state of mourning alongside the mourner.”^[19] The narrator does offer to comfort her, with a series of strange rhetorical questions:

^{איכה ב:יג} מָה אֲעִידֵךְ מָה אֲדַמֶּה לָּךְ הַבַּת יְרוּשָׁלִַם מָה אַשְׁוֶה לָּךְ וַאֲנַחֲמֵךְ בְּתוּלַת בַּת צִיּוֹן כִּי גָדוֹל כַּיָּם שִׁבְרֵךְ מִי יִרְפָּא לָךְ.

^{Lam 2:13} How can I affirm you (or bear witness to you), what can I liken to you, Dear Jerusalem? What can I compare to you so that I may console you, Dear Maiden Zion? For as vast as the sea is your devastation. Who can heal you?^[20]

In a paternal gesture, the narrator offers to bear testimony to her suffering, and so comfort her. YHWH, in his punitive wrath, has become the enemy (Lam 2:4), disciplining his children (Israel) as a father would discipline his son.^[21] Yet, as daughter Zion, she would have none of it!

While a theodicy of retributive justice is prevalent throughout Eichah—the people sinned and brought YHWH’s wrath upon themselves in this calamity (as in Lam 1:5, 8, 14, 20; 3:1-20; 4:13, 31-42, 5:7)—she resists that judgment. Bat Tzion expresses a strong anti-theodicy, a refusal “to justify the ways of God to man.”^[22] So she spurns the narrator’s offer and takes up a dirge accusing YHWH of orchestrating her destruction:

^{איכה ב:כ} רְאֵה יְ־הוָה וְהַבִּיטָה לְמִי עוֹלַלְתָּ כֹּה....

^{Lam 2:20} See, YHWH, and look, to whom you have done this...^[23]

^{איכה ב:כב} תִּקְרָא כְיוֹם מוֹעֵד מְגוּרַי מִסָּבִיב וְלֹא הָיָה בְּיוֹם אַף יְ־הוָה פָּלִיט וְשָׂרִיד אֲשֶׁר טִפַּחְתִּי וְרִבִּיתִי אֹיְבִי כִלָּם.

^{Lam 2:22} You invited my enemies from all around as if for a day of festival; and on the day of the anger of YHWH, no one escaped or survived; those whom I bore and reared, my enemy has destroyed.

Since YHWH is responsible for her current state, only YHWH can be her comforter. Adele Berlin notes:

In this context we can say that Lam 1, and perhaps the entire book, is a call to God to be Zion’s comforter.^[24]

Bat Tzion, the Whore

Likewise in Isaiah’s prophecy of doom against Jerusalem, Bat Tzion will be abandoned like a shack—exposed to wind and rain, unguarded or under siege:^[25]

^{ישׁעיה א:ח} וְנוֹתְרָה בַת צִיּוֹן כְּסֻכָּה בְכָרֶם כִּמְלוּנָה בְמִקְשָׁה כְּעִיר נְצוּרָה.

^{Isa 1:8} And daughter Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a besieged city (cf. Lam 2:6).

Although First Isaiah (chs. 1–39) is mostly pre-exilic, the first chapter appears to be a recapitulation of the book of Isaiah as a whole. It not only warns of calamity, but also predicts the restoration of Jerusalem, and thus scholars have argued that it is a post-exilic composition.^[26]

The chapter depicts Bat Tzion as a “whore” [zonah],^[27] with the cry of lament, ʾeichah, a direct allusion to Lamentations:

^{ישׁעיה א:כא} אֵיכָה הָיְתָה לְזוֹנָה קִרְיָה נֶאֱמָנָה מְלֵאֲתִי מִשְׁפָּט צֶדֶק יָלִין בָּהּ וְעַתָּה מְרַצְּחִים.

^{Isa 1:21} How has the faithful town become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lying within her—but now murderers! (cf. Lam 1:1; 2:1; 4:1)

The metaphor of Israel as a zonah is usually concerned with the transgression of sexual morays, where promiscuity or adultery serves as an analogy for idolatry—the people’s betrayal of YHWH.^[28] For example:

‏^{ירמיה ב:כ} כִּי מֵעוֹלָם שָׁבַרְתִּי עֻלֵּךְ נִתַּקְתִּי מוֹסְרֹתַיִךְ וַתֹּאמְרִי לֹא אֶעֱבֹד כִּי עַל כָּל גִּבְעָה גְּבֹהָה וְתַחַת כָּל עֵץ רַעֲנָן אַתְּ צֹעָה זֹנָה.

^{Jer 2:20} For long ago you broke your yoke, tore off your yoke-bands, and said, “I will not work!” On every high hill and under every verdant tree, you recline as a whore.^[29]

Isaiah’s rebuke, however, focuses on moral transgressions—murder, corruption, oppression of the poor, neglect of the widow and orphan. The people privilege empty prayer and fasts, offering sacrifices and incense, over doing righteousness and justice (Isa 1:10–17). They have rebelled against קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל, “the Holy One of Israel”:

^{ישׁעיה א:ד} הוֹי גּוֹי חֹטֵא עַם כֶּבֶד עָוֹן זֶרַע מְרֵעִים בָּנִים מַשְׁחִיתִים עָזְבוּ אֶת יְ־הוָה נִאֲצוּ אֶת קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל נָזֹרוּ אָחוֹר.

^{Isa 1:4} Woe, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who act corruptly, who have forsaken YHWH, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged!

Zion’s vulnerability and violation here stands in contrast to the proud, even haughty sense of her own invincibility when she defied the Assyrian army, invoking the same epithet, characteristic of Isaiah: “Holy One of Israel” (Isa 37:23, cited above).

Bat Tzion is Comforted

Bat Tzion survives the destruction, though Jerusalem is razed and the people are slaughtered or exiled. In the post-exilic material of Second Isaiah (chs. 40–66), she becomes the embodiment of hope and a call for the return to Zion.^[30] These prophecies anticipate (or are coterminous with) the period of the return to Zion after the conquest of the neo-Babylonian empire and the decree of the Persian emperor Cyrus that the Jews could return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple (539 B.C.E.).^[31]

In response to the “no comforter” language of Lamentations, the verb נחם, “to console or comfort,” serves as Leitwort (leading word) throughout Second Isaiah.^[32] The whole corpus opens with the command:

^{ישׁעיה מ:א} נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.

^{Isa 40:1} “Comfort, O comfort, my people,” says your God.

Alluding directly to Lamentations, with an assurance that YHWH has heard Bat Tzion’s plaintive, Second Isaiah calls on the heavens and the earth to rejoice because YHWH has comforted His people:^[33]

^{ישׁעיה מט:יג} רָנּוּ שָׁמַיִם וְגִילִי אָרֶץ יִפְצְחוּ [וּפִצְחוּ] הָרִים רִנָּה כִּי נִחַם יְ־הוָה עַמּוֹ וַעֲנִיָּו יְרַחֵם.

^{Isa 49:13} Sing for joy, O Heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For YHWH has comforted his people, and his suffering ones He will pity.^[34]

Zion initially responds with a bitter lament:

^{ישׁעיה מט:יד} וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן עֲזָבַנִי יְ־הוָה וַאדֹנָי שְׁכֵחָנִי.

^{Isa 49:14} But Zion said, “YHWH has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”

The two verbs, forget [שכח] and abandon [עזב], mimic the collective prayer of the people in Lamentations:^[35]

^{איכה ה:כ} לָמָּה לָנֶצַח תִּשְׁכָּחֵנוּ תַּעַזְבֵנוּ לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים.

^{Lam 5:20} “Why do You forget us for eternity, forsake us for so long?”

Yet in Second Isaiah, it is no longer the collective voice of the people, but Zion herself, having survived the destruction, whom YHWH reassures, using a metaphor in which He is more maternal than a biological mother:

^{ישׁעיה מט:טו} הֲתִשְׁכַּח אִשָּׁה עוּלָהּ מֵרַחֵם בֶּן בִּטְנָהּ גַּם אֵלֶּה תִשְׁכַּחְנָה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ.

^{Isa 49:15} Can a woman forget her nursing child, (not) pity the son of her womb?^[36] Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.^[37]

The verb רחם, “to love, or have compassion,” is another Leitwort in Second Isaiah. Playing on the double entendre, YHWH’s compassion רַחֲמִים (raḥamim) surpasses the womb, רֶחֶם (reḥem).^[38] He comes to displace the biological mother, not as a punitive paternal figure but as more compassionate uber-mom.

Bat Tzion is Restored

Bat Tzion (or Bat Yerushalayim) is then promised full restoration:

‏^{ישׁעיה נב:א} עוּרִי עוּרִי לִבְשִׁי עֻזֵּךְ צִיּוֹן לִבְשִׁי בִּגְדֵי תִפְאַרְתֵּךְ יְרוּשָׁלִַם עִיר הַקֹּדֶשׁ כִּי לֹא יוֹסִיף יָבֹא בָךְ עוֹד עָרֵל וְטָמֵא. ^נב:ב הִתְנַעֲרִי מֵעָפָר קוּמִי שְּׁבִי יְרוּשָׁלִָם הִתְפַּתְּחוּ [הִתְפַּתְּחִי] מוֹסְרֵי צַוָּארֵךְ שְׁבִיָּה בַּת צִיּוֹן.

^{Isa 52:1} Awake; awake; put on your strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall enter you no more. ^52:2 Shake yourself from the dust; rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!

Further, while Zion as the figurative daughter is depicted as ravaged in Lamentations, she is reconfigured as a barren or desolate woman in Second Isaiah, summoned to shout out and burst into song:^[39]

^{ישׁעיה נד:א} רָנִּי עֲקָרָה לֹא יָלָדָה פִּצְחִי רִנָּה וְצַהֲלִי לֹא חָלָה כִּי רַבִּים בְּנֵי שׁוֹמֵמָה מִבְּנֵי בְעוּלָה אָמַר יְ־הוָה.

^{Isa 54:1} Sing out, you barren woman, who has borne no child; break out in shouts of joy, you who have never been in labor! For the children of the wife who has been made desolate will outnumber those of the wife with a husband, says YHWH.

Though never addressed by name in this passage, the female figure is almost certainly Bat Tzion,^[40] who is provided with a redemptive ending to her story:

‏^{ישׁעיה נד:ו} כִּי כְאִשָּׁה עֲזוּבָה וַעֲצוּבַת רוּחַ קְרָאָךְ יְ־הוָה וְאֵשֶׁת נְעוּרִים כִּי תִמָּאֵס אָמַר אֱלֹהָיִךְ.

^{Isa 54:6} YHWH has summoned you back like a wife once forsaken and sad at heart, a wife still young, though once rejected, says your God.

At last, YHWH admits to having abandoned her:^[41]

^{ישׁעיה נד:ז} בְּרֶגַע קָטֹן עֲזַבְתִּיךְ וּבְרַחֲמִים גְּדֹלִים אֲקַבְּצֵךְ. ^נד:ח בְּשֶׁצֶף קֶצֶף הִסְתַּרְתִּי פָנַי רֶגַע מִמֵּךְ וּבְחֶסֶד עוֹלָם רִחַמְתִּיךְ אָמַר גֹּאֲלֵךְ יְ־הוָה.

^{Isa 54:7} For a brief space of time I forsook you, but with love overflowing [lit. womb-compassion]^[42] I will bring you back.^54:8 In an outburst of anger I hid my face from you a while, but with love never failing I have pitied you, says YHWH, your Redeemer.

The deflection away from the principle of divine retribution and the turn toward YHWH’s acknowledgment of his rash anger present an alternative theodicy. Ultimately, the daughter’s debasement implicates YHWH, the “father.” In the prophecies of consolation, the message to the woman, Bat Tzion, is not framed in terms of sin and punishment—“she deserved it”—but, rather, acknowledges her anti-theodic complaint, refusing to justify God for her suffering far exceeded the bounds of strict justice:

^{ישׁעיה מ:ב} דַּבְּרוּ עַל לֵב יְרוּשָׁלִַם וְקִרְאוּ אֵלֶיהָ כִּי מָלְאָה צְבָאָהּ כִּי נִרְצָה עֲוֹנָהּ כִּי לָקְחָה מִיַּד יְ־הוָה כִּפְלַיִם בְּכָל חַטֹּאתֶיהָ.

^{Isa 40:2} Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from YHWH’s hand double for all her sins.

A Maternal YHWH

Lamentations ends with a plea:

‏‏^{איכה ה:כא} הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְ־הוָה אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּב [וְנָשׁוּבָה] חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם. ^ה:כב כִּי אִם מָאֹס מְאַסְתָּנוּ קָצַפְתָּ עָלֵינוּ עַד מְאֹד.

^{Lam 5:21} Restore us to yourself, O YHWH, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old—^5:22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

That restoration in Second Isaiah entails a feminization of the divine rather than a rejection or sidelining of the mother.^[43] YHWH also takes on the maternal role of comforting her child:

^{ישׁעיה סו:יג} כְּאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר אִמּוֹ תְּנַחֲמֶנּוּ כֵּן אָנֹכִי אֲנַחֶמְכֶם וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם תְּנֻחָמוּ.

^{Isa 66:13} As a mother comforts her child; so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.^[44]

Beginning as a proud, haughty princess, Bat Tzion passes through a period of lament and anguish in witnessing the slaughter, suffering, and enslavement of her children, only to arrive at place where YHWH resides in consolation with her. Moreover, the figure of Bat Tzion and the feminization of YHWH in Second Isaiah anticipate the later personification of Knesset Yisrael, “the community of Israel” and the post-exilic perception of God’s feminine “in-dwelling” Shekhinah.^[45]

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August 8, 2024

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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, biblical translations follow NRSVue, with modifications.

[2] As in the opening acrostic in Lamentations 1:1, 2:1, and 4:1, and in Isaiah 1:11 and Jeremiah 48:17. Also, in David’s lament for Jonathan and Saul, אֵיךְ נָפְלוּ גִבּוֹרִים, “How have the mighty fallen!” (2 Sam 1:19, 25, 27).

[3] The book of Lamentations (in Hebrew Eichah) is read on Tisha be’Av, the most mournful day of the Jewish year. In poetry and dramatic voice, it recounts the response to the siege on Jerusalem, the destruction of the First Temple, and the exile of the Judeans by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. See Elsie R. Stern, “Lamentations in Seasonal Context,” TheTorah (2016); and Elsie R. Stern, From Rebuke to Consolation: Exegesis and Theology in the Liturgical Anthology of the Ninth of Av Season, Brown Judaic Studies 338 (Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2005).

[4] See Edward L. Greenstein, “Where Are God’s Tears in Lamentations?” TheTorah (2021).

[5] This howl, like the wailing in the desert, the empty wasteland where the jackals and ostriches howl (Deut 32:10, Rashi loc. cit.), conveys the boundary between sound and silence, when there are simply no words. See the discussion in Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Genesis, the Beginning of Desire (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995), 130–133.

[6] 2 Kings 19:21; Psalm 9:15; Isaiah 1:8, 10:32, 16:1, 37:22, 52:2, 62:11; Jeremiah 4:31, 6:2, 23; Lamentations 1:6, 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 18, and 4:2; Micah 1:13, 4:8, 10, 13; Zephaniah 3:14; and Zechariah 1:10, 2:14, 9:9. See also the synonymous expressions: הַר בַּת צִיּוֹן, “mount daughter Zion” (Isa 16:1, 10:32); בַּת יְרוּשָׁלִַם, “daughter Jerusalem” (2 Kgs 19:21; Isa 37:22; Lam 2:13, 15; Mic 4:8; Zeph 3:14, Zech 9:9); בַּת יְהוּדָה, “daughter Judah” (Lam 1:15 and 2:2, 5); and בְּתוּלַת, “maiden” or “virgin,” Israel/Jerusalem/Judah (2 Kgs 19:21, Jer 18:13, 31:4, 21; Lam 1:15; Amos 5:2). See Karla Bohmbach, “Daughter,” in Women in Scripture, ed. Carol Meyers (Boston and New York: Houghton-Mifflin Co. 2000), 517–519; Rachel Adelman, “Daughter Zion (Bat Tzion),” Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Adele Berlin reads Bat Tzion as a title and term of endearment: hence “Dear Zion.” See Adele Berlin, Lamentations: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 10–12, 42, 53. See also Mary L. Conway, “Daughter Zion: Metaphor and Dialogue in the Book of Lamentations,” in Daughter Zion: Her Portrait, Her Response, ed. M. J. Boda, C. J. Dempsey, and L. S. Flesher (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 101–127; and Christi Maier, Daughter Zion, Mother Zion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008).

[7] Berlin, Lamentations, 47.

[8] The great ethnographer and historian of the Cairo Geniza, Shelomo Dov Goitein, inspired by his observations of the traditional Yemenite community, identified a similar “professional role” for women in the Bible, such as the “dirge singers” or “lamenters”—the women “bewailing Tammuz” (Ezek 8:14), or the keeners/mourners in Jeremiah 9:16–19 (cf. Ezek 32:16, Jer 49:3)—and the women who lament/recount Jephthah’s daughter (Judg 11:40) See Shelomo Dov Goitein, “Women as Creators of Biblical Genres,” trans. Michael Carasik, Prooftexts 8, no. 1 (1988): 1–33; original in ‘lyyunim BaMiqra [Studies in Scripture] (Yavneh 1957), 250–303. See also Juliana Claassens, “Calling the Keeners: The Image of the Wailing Woman as Symbol of Survival in a Traumatized World,” JFSR 26.1 (2010): 63–77.

[9] Studies in ancient Near Eastern literature point to a city-lament genre in which the goddess decries the destruction of her city and its people. Whereas the goddess keens over her fallen city—Nippur, ancient Sumer, or Ur—in the book of Lamentations it is daughter Zion, the personified city herself, who voices the dirge and pleads the cause for her devastated and exiled people (Lam 1:9b, 11b–15a, 16, 18–22; 2:11–12). See Peggy Day, “The Personification of Cities as Female in the Hebrew Bible: The Thesis of Aloysius Fitzgerald, F.S.C.,” in Reading from this place. II. Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective, ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1995), 283–302; F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Weep O Daughter Zion: A Study of the City-Lament Genre in the Hebrew Bible, BibOr 44 (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1993). See also Berlin, Lamentations, 6–12, 50–53; Nili Samet, The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur , MC 18 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), 1–31; Samet, “The Sumerian City Laments and the Book of Lamentations,” TheTorah (2015); and Cynthia R. Chapman, The Gendered Language of Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter, Harvard Semitic Monographs 62 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004).

[10] Cf. Isaiah 47:1, 5; Jeremiah 50:42, 51:33; and Zechariah 2:7.

[11] 2 Kings 19:20 adds שָׁמָֽעְתִּי, “I have heard” (i.e., Hezekiah’s prayer).

[12] The tossing of her head suggests contempt or scorn—but it is usually ascribed to the enemy (as in Pss 22:8, 109:25, and Lam 2:15).

[13] For a review of the relationship between 2 Kings 18–19 and Isaiah 36–39, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, AB 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 459–461; and Maier, Daughter Zion, 79–81, 240–241.

[14] The prophet Amos first draws upon the motif of the fallen maiden with regard to Israel in his lament for the northern kingdom, devastated in 722 B.C.E. by the Assyrians:

^{עמוס ה:ב} נָפְלָה לֹא תוֹסִיף קוּם בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל נִטְּשָׁה עַל אַדְמָתָהּ אֵין מְקִימָהּ.

^{Amos 5:2} The Virgin Israel has fallen. She shall rise no more. She is forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.

By contrast, in Jeremiah the northern tribes are assured sanctuary and revival in Judea, the southern kingdom (identified as Ephraim, YHWH’s “firstborn” “darling son” [31:8, 17, 19]; alt. “Rachel’s children” for whom she weeps as they are sent into exile [vv. 15–17]). See Marvin A. Sweeney, “For Whom Does Rachel Weep?” TheTorah (2016).

[15] A young woman’s bride-price would be based on her status as a virgin, so the father has a vested interest, not only socially but also financially, in protecting that status (cf. Exod 22:15–16, Deut 22:13–29). See Tikva Frymer-Kensky, “Virginity in the Bible,” in Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, ed. V. H. Matthews, B. M. Levinson, and T. Frymer-Kensky, JSOT Sup 262 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998), 79–96.

[16] Jerusalem successfully spurns the foreign conquest. The prophecy goes on to predict Sennacherib’s downfall and the salvation of Zion as YHWH defends his own honor:

^{ישׁעיה לז:לה} וְגַנּוֹתִי עַל הָעִיר הַזֹּאת לְהוֹשִׁיעָהּ לְמַעֲנִי וּלְמַעַן דָּוִד עַבְדִּי.

^{Isa 37:35} “For I [YHWH] will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

An angel of YHWH then goes out to strike down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp deployed outside Jerusalem, in a replay of the Egyptian plague of slaying the firstborn (Isa 37:26; 2 Kgs 19:35; cf. Exod 12).

[17] For further reading, see John H. Hayes, “The Tradition of Zion’s Inviolability,” JBL 82 (1963): 419–426. In 2 Samuel 7, the prophet Nathan promises King David that he would establish an eternal dynasty, that his son would build the Temple, and that YHWH would come to reside there, in the chosen capital, Jerusalem, “the city of David.” Though David could not build a house (i.e. Temple) for YHWH—deferred to his son, Solomon—YHWH would grant the king a “house” (that is, a dynasty) that would persist forever. (In 2 Samuel 7, the term bayit, lit. “house,” refers to palace [vv. 1–2]; to Temple [vv. 5–7, 13]; and to dynasty [vv. 11, 16, 19, 25, 26, 27, 29]). This seemingly unconditional “covenant of grant” (Weinfeld’s term) lies at the heart of Zion theology. See Moshe Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90:2 (1970): 184–120. For Mount Zion as YHWH’s holy abode see Psalms 46, 48 and 76, as well as Isaiah 31:4. For further discussion of Zion theology, see Jon D. Levenson, Sinai and Zion (Minneapolis: Winston, 1985), 89–184. For a complex reading of the deferral of David’s proposal to build the Temple as foreshadowing the fall of the First Commonwealth, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Babylonian exile, see Robert Polzin, “A House for a House,” in David and the Deuteronomist (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 54–87.

[18] See, e.g., Lamentations 1:6, 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13 and 4:22. Lamentations is most likely a product of a community of Judeans who lived in the land (Berlin, Lamentations, 4).

[19] Gary A. Anderson, Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: The Expression of Grief and Joy in Israelite Religion (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991); 84; quoted in Berlin, Lamentations, 48.

[20] Translation based on Berlin, Lamentations, 54. Editor’s note: On this verse, see Tzvi Novick, “Communicating Catastrophe,” TheTorah (2017).

[21] Just as YHWH, in Nathan’s oracle, promises to disciple King David’s son: אֲנִי אֶהְיֶה לּוֹ לְאָב וְהוּא יִהְיֶה לִּי לְבֵן, “I will be a father to him and he shall be my son…” (2 Sam 7:14). Likewise, Moses tells Israel: בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַי־הוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, “You are the children of YHWH, your God” (Deut 14:1). As a father, the people or prophet call upon YHWH to have compassion on them. See Psalm 103:13; Isaiah 63:16 and 64:7; and Jeremiah 31:20, although arguably, the metaphor in Jeremiah is more maternal than paternal.

[22] Paraphrasing John Milton’s Paradise Lost. My definition is based on Zachary Braiterman, (God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1998). He defines the term “theodicy” (lit. “God’s justice”, theo-dike, coined by the German philosopher Leibniz), as “any attempt to justify, explain, or find acceptable meaning to the relationship that subsists between God (or some other form of ultimate reality), evil, and suffering” (p. 4). In contrast, “antitheodicy” means refusing to justify, explain, or accept that relationship” (p. 4). Ultimately, in lament and protest, “Daughter Zion talks back to the prophets” (Mandolfo’s words). See Carleen Mandolfo, Daughter Zion Talks Back to the Prophets: A Dialogic Theology of the Book of Lamentations (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). Mandolfo, however, focuses on how Bat Tzion in Lamentations challenges the wife-husband motif, yet overlooks the father-daughter paradigm. The term Bat Tzion is not used, for the most part, in the extended allegories about Israel/Judea as the adulterous wife (Hos 1–3; Jer 3; Ezek 16, 23).

[23] Translation adapted from Berlin, Lamentations, 65.

[24] Berlin, Lamentations, 48.

[25] We might compare this metaphor to Sennacherib’s reference to Hezekiah shut up in the city “like a bird in a cage” (ANET, 288); quoted in Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, 184.

[26] The chapter also borrows extensively from Deuteronomistic language, especially “the Song of Moses” (Deut 32) (Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, 175–176). Editor’s note: Arguing instead that much of Isaiah 1 is pre-exilic, but it has been reworked by a post-exilic editor, see Ethan Schwartz, “Isaiah’s Warning: Piety without Justice Leads to the Fall of Jerusalem,” TheTorah (2024). Isaiah 1 is read on the Sabbath just before Tisha be’Av, known as Shabbat Ḥazon, after the opening words: “The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz…” (v. 1), the last of the “three weeks of calamity,” from the 17^th of Tammuz to the 9^th of Av.

[27] The term zonah does not refer to a professional prostitute, but rather to a woman who has sexual relations outside of the sanction of marriage: “fornication” in antiquated terms. Thus, Dinah’s brothers are concerned that Dinah is seen הַכְזוֹנָה, “as a whore” (Gen 34:31); Tamar (pregnant) is accused of זְנוּנִים, “harlotry” (Gen 38:24); and a young woman, proved to not be a virgin upon marriage, is stoned to death because she has לִזְנ֖וֹת בֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יהָ, “played the harlot in her father’s house” (Deut 22:21). See Phyllis Bird, “’’To Play the Harlot’: An inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor,” in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed, Peggy Day (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 75–94.

[28] She is then devastated and shamed, abandoned for her harlotry in this dramatization of Israel’s betrayal of YHWH. See, e.g., Jeremiah 3; Ezekiel 16, 23; Hosea 1–3. For a discussion of the problematic nature of this misogynist motif, see Renita J. Weems, Battered Love: Marriage Sex, and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997); Gerlinde Baumann, Love and Violence: Marriage as Metaphor for the Relationship between YHWH and Israel in the Prophetic Books (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press 2003); Sharon Moughtin-Mumby, Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); and Amy Kalmanofsky, Dangerous Sisters in the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2014), 53–68.

[29] In prophetic literature, metaphorical harlotry, as in “intercourse with other deities,” was sometimes thought to entail ritual fornication (as in Exod 34:15–16, Deut 31:16, Jer 2:20, Ezek 16:34, 41, and so forth). See the discussion in Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses (New York: Fawcett Columbine 1992), 29, 201.

[30] The Rabbis had already observed that Isaiah’s prophecies offered an anti-dote to Jeremiah’s doom tolls. The latter prophet, according to tradition, followed the former chronologically:

^{איכה רבה א} וְכֵן אַתְּ מוֹצֵא שֶׁכָּל נְבוּאוֹת קָשׁוֹת שֶׁנִּתְנַבֵּא יִרְמְיָה עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל הִקְדִּים יְשַׁעְיָה וְרִפְּאָן

^{Lam Rab 1:23} So you find for all the harsh prophecies that Jeremiah prophesied regarding Israel, Isaiah anticipated (them) and offered healing.

Based on the printed edition (Vilna 1878); cf. Lamentations Rabbah 1:21 and 1:26, Midrash Aggadah (ed. Buber) Deuteronomy 1:1, 12. Modern scholars, however, fully aware of the post-exilic setting for Second Isaiah argue that these later prophecies are a direct response and inversion of the earlier harsh prophecies and lament. See Tod Linafelt, Surviving Lamentations: Catastrophe, Lament and Protest in the Afterlife of a Biblical Book (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 62–79; Patricia Tull Willey, Remember the Former Things: The Recollection of Previous Texts in Second Isaiah (SBL Dissertation Series 161; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 125–132; 188–193; 229–245; Benjamin Sommer, A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40–66 (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 127–131; and Carol Newsom, “Response to Norman K. Gottwald ‘Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40–55,’” in Ideological Criticism of Biblical Texts, eds. Tina Pippin and David Jobling, Semeia 59 (1992), 73–78.

[31] See Mark J. Boda, “The Daughter’s Joy,” in Daughter Zion: Her Portrait, Her Response, ed. M. J. Boda, C. J. Dempsey, and L. S. Flesher (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 321–342. On the dating and composition of Second Isaiah, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40–55, AB 19A (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 92–104; and Isaiah 56–66, AB 19B (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 42–66. Blenkinsopp points out that initially Bat Zion (“the woman Zion”) represents both the Jewish people and the physical, historical city of Jerusalem (chs. 40–48), but the focus shifts decisively from Jacob/Israel to Jerusalem/Zion as the Judean community falls back on its commitment to rebuild and repopulate the city (Isaiah 40–55, 360). All seven haftaroth of consolations (שבעה דנחמתא) are taken from Second Isaiah (chs. 40–63).

[32] For the verb נחם, see Isaiah 40:1 (x2), 49:13; 51:3, 12, 19; 52:9; 61:2; 66:13 (x3). See Martin Buber, “Leitwort Style in Pentateuch Narrative,” in Scripture and Translation, ed. Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, trans. Lawrence Rosenwald with Everett Fox (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), 114–128.

[33] Linafelt notes the parallel between Isaiah 49 and Lamentations 1 in Surviving Lamentations, 72. See also Willey, Remember the Former Things, 189–190.

[34] Resonant with Zion’s plea: רְאֵה יְהוָה אֶת עָנְיִי, “See, YHWH, my suffering” (Lam 1:9).

[35] The pairing of these two verbs is actually quite rare. In addition to Isaiah 49:4 and Lamentations 5:20, see Proverbs 2:17, Job 5:20, and Isaiah 65:11. See the discussion in Willey, Remember the Former Things, 188–191; Linafelt, Surviving Lamentations, 74–79; Maeir, Daughter Zion, Mother Zion, 164–167.

[36] Almost all translations read an ellipsis into the verse, where “not” is dropped in the second phrase (following the LXX). But the masculine singular participle מֵרַחֵם (meraḥem) is not parallel to the feminine singular imperfect הֲתִשְׁכַּח (ha-tishkakh). An alternative reading suggests that the verb הֲתִשְׁכַּח, “forget” carries over into the second phrase and מֵרַחֵם represents the combination of the preposition מִן and noun רֶחֶם, , parallel to עוּלָהּ, “her suckling/nursing child,” and בֶּן בִּטְנָהּ, “child of her belly.” If so, then 49:14b could read: “(Would she forget) (one) of the womb, son of her belly?” This reading is not supported by the vocalization in the MT.

[37] As in the case of starvation, when women were supposedly compelled cannibalize their own children (Lam 2:20, 4:2–3, 10; mentioned in the curses of Lev 26:29, Deut 28:54–57; cf. 2 Kgs 6:26–30, Jer 19:9, and Ezek 5:10). Berlin argues that this motif is likely an exaggeration that does not correspond to reality (Lamentations, 75–76).

[38] For the verb רחם, see Isaiah 49:10, 13, 15; 54:8, 10; 55:7; 60:10. The verb רחם and the noun רֶחֶם probably derive from different roots, though they may have been conflated in Israelite imagination. See Mayer I. Gruber, “The Motherhood of God in Second Isaiah,” in The Motherhood of God and Other Studies, South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 57 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 3–15.

[39] Cf. Zephaniah 3:14; Zechariah 2:14 [NRSV 2:10], 9:9.

[40] See Boda, “Daughter’s Joy,” 329.

[41] The image of the abandoned woman, taken back in love, resonates with Hosea’s prophecy against Israel, the northern kingdom (chs. 1–2) and Jeremiah’s question, “Can a woman who has whored with many lovers, return to her husband?” (3:1), an action that would be prohibited according to the law in Deuteronomy 24:1–5. However, in Hosea, the woman’s restoration only follows a period of severe abuse (2:4–15). Second Isaiah likewise alludes to a period of forced separation, but does not mention other lovers or liaisons before the reunion of husband and wife. See Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40–55, 360; and Benjamin Sommer, A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40–66 (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 102–103. Furthermore, instead of characterizing her as faithless, Zion is portrayed as barren, abandoned, desolate, or rejected—like the barren matriarchs of Genesis, the abandoned married women or “grass widows” of the history, and the desolate daughter of David, Tamar. It is this critique, of not only the strictures of patriarchy but also YHWH’s ineluctable justice, that Bat Tzion and these female figures articulate.

[42] See Phyllis Trible, “Journey of a Metaphor,” in God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 31–59.

[43] On feminine divine imagery, see Gruber, “Motherhood of God in Second Isaiah”; and Hanne Løland, Silent or Salient Gender? The Interpretation of Gendered God-Language in the Hebrew Bible, Exemplified in Isaiah 42, 46 and 49, FAT II 32 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008).

[44] For a recent study, see Juliana M. Claassens, Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God’s Delivering Presence in the Old Testament (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2012).

[45] As F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp suggests in Lamentations (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2002), 53.

[1] Unless otherwise indicated, biblical translations follow NRSVue, with modifications.

[4] See Edward L. Greenstein, “Where Are God’s Tears in Lamentations?” TheTorah (2021).

[7] Berlin, Lamentations, 47.

[10] Cf. Isaiah 47:1, 5; Jeremiah 50:42, 51:33; and Zechariah 2:7.

[11] 2 Kings 19:20 adds שָׁמָֽעְתִּי, “I have heard” (i.e., Hezekiah’s prayer).

[12] The tossing of her head suggests contempt or scorn—but it is usually ascribed to the enemy (as in Pss 22:8, 109:25, and Lam 2:15).

[14] The prophet Amos first draws upon the motif of the fallen maiden with regard to Israel in his lament for the northern kingdom, devastated in 722 B.C.E. by the Assyrians:

^{עמוס ה:ב} נָפְלָה לֹא תוֹסִיף קוּם בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל נִטְּשָׁה עַל אַדְמָתָהּ אֵין מְקִימָהּ.

^{Amos 5:2} The Virgin Israel has fallen. She shall rise no more. She is forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.

[16] Jerusalem successfully spurns the foreign conquest. The prophecy goes on to predict Sennacherib’s downfall and the salvation of Zion as YHWH defends his own honor:

^{ישׁעיה לז:לה} וְגַנּוֹתִי עַל הָעִיר הַזֹּאת לְהוֹשִׁיעָהּ לְמַעֲנִי וּלְמַעַן דָּוִד עַבְדִּי.

^{Isa 37:35} “For I [YHWH] will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

[18] See, e.g., Lamentations 1:6, 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13 and 4:22. Lamentations is most likely a product of a community of Judeans who lived in the land (Berlin, Lamentations, 4).

[20] Translation based on Berlin, Lamentations, 54. Editor’s note: On this verse, see Tzvi Novick, “Communicating Catastrophe,” TheTorah (2017).

[23] Translation adapted from Berlin, Lamentations, 65.

[24] Berlin, Lamentations, 48.

[25] We might compare this metaphor to Sennacherib’s reference to Hezekiah shut up in the city “like a bird in a cage” (ANET, 288); quoted in Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, 184.

[30] The Rabbis had already observed that Isaiah’s prophecies offered an anti-dote to Jeremiah’s doom tolls. The latter prophet, according to tradition, followed the former chronologically:

^{איכה רבה א} וְכֵן אַתְּ מוֹצֵא שֶׁכָּל נְבוּאוֹת קָשׁוֹת שֶׁנִּתְנַבֵּא יִרְמְיָה עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל הִקְדִּים יְשַׁעְיָה וְרִפְּאָן

^{Lam Rab 1:23} So you find for all the harsh prophecies that Jeremiah prophesied regarding Israel, Isaiah anticipated (them) and offered healing.

[33] Linafelt notes the parallel between Isaiah 49 and Lamentations 1 in Surviving Lamentations, 72. See also Willey, Remember the Former Things, 189–190.

[34] Resonant with Zion’s plea: רְאֵה יְהוָה אֶת עָנְיִי, “See, YHWH, my suffering” (Lam 1:9).

[39] Cf. Zephaniah 3:14; Zechariah 2:14 [NRSV 2:10], 9:9.

[40] See Boda, “Daughter’s Joy,” 329.

[42] See Phyllis Trible, “Journey of a Metaphor,” in God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 31–59.

[44] For a recent study, see Juliana M. Claassens, Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God’s Delivering Presence in the Old Testament (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2012).

[45] As F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp suggests in Lamentations (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2002), 53.

Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College, where she also received ordination. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009), based on her dissertation, and The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015), written under the auspices of the Women's Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard. Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press). When she is not writing books, papers, or divrei Torah, it is poetry that flows from her pen.

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