Abstract
ABSTRACT In Nah 3:1, the Assyrian capital Nineveh is called "city of bloodshed." Nineveh is indeed "a bloody city," filled with the blood of the numerous dead bodies associated with the fall of the city. However, as also in the case of a similar portrayal of the city of Jerusalem in Ezek 22:2, Nineveh is depicted as a female entity, hence suggesting that one may also read these poetic texts as invoking the image of a bleeding, menstruating city with all the connotations of not only ritual impurity but also moral guilt associated with this portrayal of sexual perversion or pollution (cf. Lev 18:19; 20:18). In this regard, it is significant that Nineveh in Nah 3:4 is called "a whore " - a derogatory slur that often is used to denote those who are " other" or foreign. The article will explore the ethical implications of disruption as a reading strategy that is particularly important when reading the prophetic traditions through the lens of gender, postcolonial and queer biblical interpretation. Keywords: Nah 3, Ezek 22, Feminist Biblical Interpretation, Disgust, Sexual Pollution, Sexual Perversion, Gender-based Violence
Highlights
In Nah 3:1, the Assyrian capital Nineveh is called “city of bloodshed.” Nineveh is “a bloody city,” filled with the blood of the numerous dead bodies associated with the fall of the city
As in the case of a similar portrayal of the city of Jerusalem in Ezek 22:2, Nineveh is depicted as a female entity, suggesting that one may read these poetic texts as invoking the image of a bleeding, menstruating city with all the connotations of ritual impurity and moral guilt associated with this portrayal of sexual perversion or pollution
The article will explore the ethical implications of disruption as a reading strategy that is important when reading the prophetic traditions through the lens of gender, postcolonial and queer biblical interpretation
Summary
Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty-no end to the plunder! (Nah 3:1). Feminist scholars have long noted the virulent language of sexual violence that is used in the prophetic discourse to denote the downfall of a besieged city and her inhabitants Whether it be Personified Jerusalem (Lam 1–2; Jer 13:22), Daughter Babylon (Isa 47:1–13; Jer 51:1–10) or the Whore Nineveh (Nah 3:1– 7) who is on the receiving end of the devastating violence of military warfare, the commonalities associated with this evocative metaphor are clear. In conversation with the works of scholars such as Eva Feinstein on sexual pollution and Elizabeth Goldstein on impurity and gender in the Hebrew Bible, this article considers the way in which the language of sexual perversion or pollution has informed the metaphor of the city as an adulterous woman or a prostitute that is described in Ezek 22:2 as “the bloody city” or “city of bloodshed.”[4] According to Feinstein, Ezekiel’s condemnation of the “bloody city” is closely associated with laws detailing perversion, pollution or abomination in Lev 18 and 20 that include the law prohibiting sexual relations with a menstruating woman (Lev 18:19; 20:18). I propose that such a disruptive reading strategy holds important ethical implications for the way in which we approach prophetic metaphor and informs our individual and collective attempts to counter the ongoing effects of gendered and racial stereotypes which have done so much damage in our respective communities
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