To the Victor Lies the Story
When the battle is over and the dust has settled, the victor frames the story. The vanquished, if they survive, create myths of their own, of course, but since they’re unlikely to mesh with those of their new rulers, the official tale will come from the one who conquered, like American history books written to glorify the white man. In recent years we have begun to be more honest about our past, at least in some parts of our country, but our human tendency is to understand the story from our perspective, to justify our actions, and to condemn those who acted against us.
We see this kind of thing in many biblical stories, such as those of the women Rahab and Delilah. Told during a time when the Hebrews were fighting for land and independence, a time when they slaughtered the people of Canaan, these women’s stories speak of loyalty and betrayal. But loyalty to one person or community is betrayal to another. In the case of Rahab and Delilah, the victor decides which is which.
Rahab and Delilah
Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute living in Jericho. Because she betrayed her own people in order to assist the Hebrews in their conquest of her own city, the Israelites honor her memory.
Delilah, another independent woman, lived in the valley of Sorek, a community that had been overrun by the Philistines. Unlike Rahab, she chose to betray an Israeli, the hero Samson, a man who professed to love her. She did so not because of loyalty to her people or because she thought she should stop this violent and temperamental man, for he was certainly that, but because she had been offered an exorbitant sum if she did.
Rahab Saves the Spies
Rahab’s story starts before we are introduced to her. After the Hebrew people fled slavery in Egypt and wandered through the desert for forty years, they were ready to enter the land of Canaan, the land God had promised to them. With Moses dead, God chose Joshua to lead the Israelites into their new home. Before they could settle there, however, they had to conquer the people already inhabiting that land.
One of those people was Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. As a foreigner, at least to the Hebrews, and a sinner, because of her chosen career, she would normally have deemed unworthy, even despicable, to the Israelites. Yet because she showed herself to be faithful, brave, and intelligent, and especially because she hid two, nameless Israeli spies, she has been honored as a faithful, courageous woman.
To help him plan his attack, Joshua sent two spies to Jericho to reconnoiter. Instead of doing this, however, the men went to Rahab’s house “and spent the night there” (Josh 2:1). [1]
Having learned that the two men were there, the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab that she should bring them outside, “for they have come only to search out the whole land” (Josh 2:3). After receiving this warning about the danger to her people, Rahab did not give up the spies, but hid them on her roof. Then she told the king’s men that, though she had indeed seen the spies, she didn’t know where they were now. She sent the men off to seek them at the river Jordan.
Rahab Swears Fealty to Yahweh
After the king’s men had gone, Rahab went up to the roof and said to the spies, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you” (Josh 2:8-11), and she proclaimed that Yahweh was the true God of heaven and earth.
Then she demanded a favor in return for saving their lives. “Since I have acted toward you with loyalty,” she said, “you also will act toward my Father’s House with loyalty and will give me a trustworthy sign; you will keep alive my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, and all those belonging to them, and save our lives from death” (Josh 2:12-13 Schocken Bible). [2]
The men agreed and told her to hang from her window a scarlet thread that they would give to her. They told her that she and all her family must stay in their home. After the Israelites took the city, the spies would come to bring her and her family to safety. After they made their promise, Rahab sent them away, and “tied the crimson cord in the window” (Josh 2:21).
Delilah’s Seeks an Answer
Delilah’s story is a bit different. Like Rahab, she was one of the few women in the Hebrew Scriptures who had a name and did not belong to some man. She was strong, determined, and beloved by Samson. Some Philistines promised her great wealth if she could discover the secret to Samson’s strength. So one night, she asked him to tell her what made him so strong.
A first, Samson treated her request like a joke. In his typical way, he lied to her, hinting at the truth through riddles. Three times, Delilah tested what he’d told her and found he had lied each time. Samson had not been weakened.
So she cried out, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great” (Judg 16:15).
Samson Weakens
Day after day, Delilah “nagged him,” until finally, “tired to death,” Samson revealed the truth (Judges 16:16-17). If his hair were shaven from his head, he would become weak, like any man.
Realizing that he had told her the truth, Delilah called for the Philistines to come to her, which they did, bringing their money with them. She then lulled Samson to sleep. As he slept, she called for a man to shave off his locks of hair. Once he was shorn, she woke him, crying out that the Philistines were upon him.
Jumping to his feet, Samson did not at first realize “that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20), only slowly understanding that he had no power with which to fight. The Philistines overwhelmed him, gouging out his eyes, binding him with bronze, and setting him to grind grain in the prison house.
Loyalty and Betrayal
Rahab and Delilah, two different women, made two different choices. In some ways, though, they did the same thing: they picked sides. One is the hero, however, and one the villain, at least according the myths told by the Hebrews. Yet where is truth in a story told only by those who win?
All peoples have founding stories. These explain not only how they came to exist and how they came to be in the place where they live. They also explain who is worthy and who is not.
In America, for instance, the natives were “savages,” because that gave the European settlers an excuse to slaughter them. The victor frames the message. They tells tales about people like Rahab and Delilah, founding myths like those of white American, and stories of shattered relationships, bar fights, and wars. In all of these, loyalty and betrayal are in the eye of the beholder.
But is there not a morality beyond winning and losing, beyond loyalty and betrayal?
Jealous Gods and False Ones
In the Hebrew Scriptures, Yahweh is called a “jealous” god. Exodus 34:14, for instance, warns the Hebrew people not to “worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god.”
This makes Yahweh seem angry and violent, like a jealous husband who justifies his battering of his wife by saying he does it out of love. Yet his actions aren’t about love; they are about ownership. He demands from his wife, not an equal relationship, but fealty. Anything less is a betrayal.
Is this how Yahweh thinks of Israel, as a vassal who owes him fealty? Does Yahweh care more about loyalty and obedience than about relationship?
Some people would argue as much. But there’s another way to think about this divine jealousy.
False Idols
Yahweh warned against false idols not because he felt wounded when the Hebrews bowed down to other gods, but because he understood that if they worshiped these golden calves, they would end up lusting after riches, power, and earthly pleasures. They would get lost in greed, addiction, violence, and callousness.
These are the false gods; these are the enemies. When we worship gods such as these, we start to believe life is about loyalty. We seek to own rather than love. Feeling constrained rather than nurtured by the relationship, we betray one another. Jealousy rises up and destroys us.
Our downfall comes from our own betrayals, our own jealousies. It’s not that some angry god smites us. It’s that we choose false idols. In this way, we lose the part of ourselves that knows how to love.
Emphasizing Love
Rahab and Delilah were both strong, intelligent women who were just trying to survive in a violent world. They found themselves forced to make a choice between us and them, loyalty and betrayal, and they did the best they could. At such a time, it can be hard to see any way out, to realize there’s something beyond right and wrong, win and lose.
Like the characters in the Hebrew Bible, we do the best we can. And if we can see our frailty clearly, recognize the flaws in our hearts, then perhaps we can find the courage and the wisdom to make choices that emphasize, not the differences we fear, but the love we share.
In faith and fondness,
Barbara
Credits
- All quotes are from the NRSV translation of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
- Fox, Everett, The Early Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, The Schocken Bible: Volume II, New York: Schocken Books, 2014.
Photo of Painting by Harold Copping [Public domain]
Copyright © 2020 Barbara E. Stevens All Rights Reserved