Adah

This is the second Adah mentioned in the Bible, she was was the daughter of Elon the Hittite. She became one of the wives of Esau, and was known as the woman who became a “grief of mind” to his parents, Isaac and Rebekah. She was the mother of Eliphaz, Esau’s first-born son, and along with Esau’s other wives after they settled in Mount Seir became an ancestress of the Edomites who were treated as brothers by the Israelites.

Scholars believe that she is Bashemath from Genesis 26:34, and 36:2. It is not uncommon for women to receive new names after marriage although I don’t though they can be certain of it. it is said that one name was dropped to avoid confusion with a daughter of Ishmael. Genesis is supposed to be history and 36 genealogy.

Adah means, adornment, beauty, pleasure. The pure Hebrew name is found in the compounds, Adaiah, “whom Jehovah adorns,” and Maadiah, “ornament from Jehovah.” Of course the first Adah is one of Cain’s wives, along with Zillah in Genesis 4. they are the next women named after Eve. Rebecca Jones / Alexander Krivitsky, Unsplash, lovely.

 

Sheerah

Here is a woman who really did thrive. Her miscellaneous name belonged to a daughter of Ephraim, and it means a relative by blood.  Sheerah must have been a woman of physical power, and strength. And obviously she would have had to have been prosperous,  for she built or fortified three villages.

Although it may have been part of an inheritance and enlarged for family reasons, making her sort of the executor, either way, she was a unique woman entrusted with land and ownership and the fortification or protection of the villages, most woman had very little say in the matter. 2 Chronicles 7:24, 2 Chronicles 8:5

Jemima, the Dove

We know the story of Job all too well, that his family was killed in a storm. But God was faithful to him even after his many trials, and he restored Job’s family, he had three daughters, Kezia, her name means perfume. Also Keren Huppach, like Karen Huh or hoo-pak. Her name is a derivative of something they used to hold a mixture of eye shadow or liner. And then there was Jemima.

We often associate that name with pancakes, but it was the name of Job’s daughter and since there are no j’s in Hebrew, it is pronounced yah-mee-mah. It means dove. So the next time you think about Job remember the beauty of his daughters, and the next time you pour some syrup, think about Jemima who goes further back than the iconic advertising lady, former slave Nancy Green, she’s way back to Joseph’s day, and too knew slavery. Rebecca Jones / Christian Newman Unsplash, thanks.

Rachel’s Romance

When Jacob went to work for Laban, he found himself in love with Rachel. She was beautiful and the Bible says he was in agreement to work for her for seven years. Tending flocks, and whatever else he did was not a long time to him it says, because he loved her.

However, Laban had another daughter, Leah, who was older. He decided it was not right for the younger one to marry, so he substituted her for Rachel after the seven years. Now, we might wonder how this was carried out. Did he not wonder where Rachel was? Perhaps, the devious Laban had reported her ill or some other lie.

As for the bridal attire the bride was totally covered. I have seen the weddings even recently where orthodox brides are unrecognizable. And considering it was likely night, only a small lamp, it could have happened that he would not know his intended.

To this day, it is tradition, that the veil is lifted at the wedding, for this very reason, undaunted Jacob works another seven years for her. He ends up with twelve sons who are progenitors, the tribes of Israel, and a daughter, Dinah.

Rachel is mother to Joseph, but dies in childbirth bearing Benjamin. Apparently, she clung to some idols from her father’s home. Although this is a love story, that Jacob worked seven years for nothing to have her as a wife, it it duplicitous, in that Jacob had deceived Isaac into blessing him, and now he was deceived. And that Rachel, believing the God of Israel, had to bury stolen idols.

There was a lot of dissention and tension here, with sisters married to the same man, polygamy was never a good idea or part of God’s plan. While Rachel was loved, Leah was having sons. And then finally she had Joseph, a much loved son of his old age.  And then Benjamin.

While the beauty is that her kissed her and wept, there is a lot of sadness and sorrow, and echoes through time, Rachel weeping for her children. Rebecca Jones / public domain

 

Dinah

Dinah was the only daughter of Jacob and Leah, and remembered for being curious and going to town, where she was seduced and raped by Shechem. It is said by the historian to have been a Caananite festival, and she should not have been there.

Whether or not she should have been there, she had brothers who could have looked after her better. A lot of people are quick to judge, thinking should have been content to stay in camp. That is not going to happen, all girls will look for love, it is important that they realize what it really is.

The prince appears to have forced her though she may have been flattered, it has deadly consequences even though he offered to marry her, it even says he loved her and spoke kind words to her.

While Jacob may have agreed, the brothers destroyed the city and killed all the men, and only added to the poor girl’s troubles. While Joseph and Benjamin may not have been involved being younger, the oldest knew better. For their crime, Simeon and Levi received a curse instead of a blessing from Jacob their father, as he came to die.

What happened to Dinah? We may not know for sure, but we know that her story reminds Joseph to run from Potiphar’s wife, even though he will be accused falsely and sent to jail. And remember how God brought him to govern under Pharoah.

It appears that one of Job’s friends has the same name as one mentioned in Joseph’s story, I cannot say positively, that Dinah became the wife of Job, we know the time frames are similar.

Did Dinah who had suffered so much, herself become the wife of Job and see him go through all he did? Or was she perhaps a second wife and mother to the children God gave him.

It is pure speculation, only a conjecture based on few facts, but wouldn’t it be a love story? Let’s hope Dinah found love with someone, and hers is a cautionary tale for the ages. Rebecca Jones / Jose Ross, thanks.

• I highly recommend the movie Joseph with Paul Mercurio.

Michal

Michal was the daughter of Saul and fell in love with David. But she did not love God the same way. Saul had vowed that the man who killed Goliath would become his son-in-law, and Merab, Saul’s first daughter should have been given to David, but Saul, regretting his promise, had given her to another man.

It’s bad when someone has to kill people to marry you but those were Buble days. The couple married but saul was still jealous and hated David. Still bent on destroying him, Saul had David’s house surrounded. In a frenzy of envy Saul had messengers “watch David to slay him in the morning.”

But Michal sensed danger danger and, discovering her father’s intention, “let David down through a window; and he fled and escaped.” Then she tricked her father and his emissaries. With her husband safely out of the way, Michal put a hair-covered dummy in David’s bed, and when the men burst in they found that they had been cleverly tricked. When Saul heard he had been outwitted, he accused his daughter of disloyalty to her father, and he was bitter and enraged. Michal, however, pretended that David had threatened to kill her if she did not help him to escape, and that may have appeased him somewhat.

Michal became the wife of Phalti. She was tired of David livin on the run from her father. This was an illegitimate union seeing David was alive, they were never divorced, poor Phalti followed her, weeping, when she decided to leave him for her former husband.

With Saul’s death, David whom God had already chosen to be king over His people could now reign. He had her forcibly returned as Queen. Though Phalti wept over her and was sent back Abner, the Bible doesn’t say she returned that love, apparently she held some idolatrous beliefs, ans was quick to turn on David and even spit on him as he returned and danced with the crowds bringing back the Ark.

She was childless, thy likely lived apart and David had other wives. Michal cared for her sister Merab’s five children after her death, and all five would eventually be beheaded. What a different story had she kept her love alive for him and walked in faith, but she despised him with all her heart and even let the hell of a woman scorned in, though it was her mad father, the king that drove a lot of the story. Rebecca Jones / pexels

 

 

Merab

Saul’s eldest daughter, was promised by her father to David for his victory over Goliath, but was finally given to Adried, the Meholathite,  by whom she had five sons, all of whom were subsequently hanged or beheaded by the Gibeonites as a revenge for Saul’s bloodthirsty zeal against them.

These were the children Michal cared for after her sister died young or perhaps in childbirth. By this time she was estranged from David and could care for them as she was childless, she may still have been living on the palace grounds however. Saul’s sins had caused ruin in his family.

Merab’s name means to multiply, she was the intended bride of David, and perhaps a better choice than Michal, who’s name means like God, though she loved David and helped him escape, it may have been more of girlish crush and she was excellent at lying to her father and quick to find and leave another man. Her story is in 1 samuel 14 and 18. Rebecca Jones / pexels

Jezebel

Jezebel and Ahab were quite a pair if you want to get into wicked people. They suited each other, only Jezebel wore the pants in the family.  However, this vicious woman was powerless without the king’s authority. But a wild one with it, snaring anyone she wanted to have killed in her schemes.

She wouldn’t mind have you killed for your vineyard, stoning the blood out of you, leaving dogs to lick your blood.  He would reap the whirlwind she sowed as an idolatress, and demanding woman,  look out prophets, she had 700 killed.

Elijah went up against hers, and God sent fire from heaven. But even Elijah began to fear this wicked queen and hid out. Like all evil people, there is a stopping point, when enough is enough and your life comes to a halt.

Jezebel painted her face, which even gave make up a bad name, perhaps not out of vanity just the determination to die a queen, to make one more spectacle of herself.and was thrown from a window, with dog gnawing on her.

And there is still a Jezebel spirit at work. And the irony of it, her name means chaste. Rebecca Jones / Rondell Melling / pexels

Drusilla and Felix

This is Drusilla, granddaughter or Herod the Great and niece of Herod Antipas. She was married  to a king at 15, stolen away and taken to Felix. She was one of the bad girls of the Bible because of her ancestors and wan not innocent herself, she was never divorced and when Paul came to preach, Felix was actually condemn but sent him away.

Although Drusilla was a Jewess sat under Paul’s teaching it appears she was unrepentant, though felix did keep in contact with him, but Paul refused a bribe to be let out of prison. Perhaps, Drusilla had an influence on Felix against Paul, being angry for his calling out her sinful life.

Theirs was hardly a romance though it appears Felix really wanted her. It was more a political union. And after the governor of Rome was relieved twenty years later, they sort of disappear from history, except that the historian Josephus say that she was was away with her son Agrippa, and the pair could not escape the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

She may have been entombed in ashes, when she could have had beauty for them. And a new creation in Christ, had she listened. Drusilla was not the perfect wife or mother, and we can only hope that in a moment of terror she could have repented remembering Paul’s words as ashes spewed. What tragic consequences can occur when marriage is not the three fold cord, God intended. Rebecca Jones / Himanshu Gunarathna / pexels

Zibiah

The name of this princess of Judah carries grace, agility and beauty, it means gazelle.  From Beersheba, Zibiah became the wife of King Ahaziah. She was the mother of Jehoash, or Joash, and he  was saved from murder in childhood and lived to become king of Judah and reigned for 40 years. We only have a record of her name but she must have influenced her husband and son.

Joash did “that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him,” is a good indication of her care to bring up her son in the fear of the Lord, and also of his willingness to follow the Godly advice of his appointed representative, Jehoiada. She not as well known a queen, but she raised a son, who not only was king but moved closer to one. Rebecca Jones / pexels