The Unnamed Woman Part 3: The Woman

(15) [Joab’s men] came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah; they threw up a siegemound against the city and it stood against the rampart. All the troops with Joab were engaged in battering the wall, (16) when a clever woman shouted from the city, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come over here so I can talk to him.” (17) He approached her, and the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “Yes,” he answered; and she said to him, “Listen to what your handmaid has to say.” “I’m listening,” he replied. (18) And she continued, “In olden times people used to say, ‘Let them inquire of Abel,’ and that was the end of the matter. (19) I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel. But you seek to bring death upon a mother city in Israel! Why should you destroy the LORD’s possession?” (20) Joab replied, “Far be it, far be it from me to destroy or to ruin! (21) Not at all! But a certain man from the hill country of Ephraim, named Sheba son of Bichri, has rebelled against King David. Just hand him alone over to us, and I will withdraw from the city.” The woman assured Joab, “His head shall be thrown over the wall to you.” (22) The woman came to all the people with her clever plan; and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it down to Joab. He then sounded the horn; all the men dispersed to their homes, and Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

The Rabbis of blessed memory said, this was Serach the daughter of Asher...I am the one who told Ya'akov of blessed memory, that Joseph was alive...

She doubled her speech in the way that one yells in fear, and she called out to those fighting so they will hear her...

(2) so Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a clever woman from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning; put on mourning clothes and don’t anoint yourself with oil; and act like a woman who has grieved a long time over a departed one. (3) Go to the king and say to him thus and thus.” And Joab told her what to say. (4) The woman of Tekoa came to the king, flung herself face down to the ground, and prostrated herself. She cried out, “Help, O king!” (5) The king asked her, “What troubles you?” And she answered, “Alas, I am a widow, my husband is dead. (6) Your maidservant had two sons. The two of them came to blows out in the fields where there was no one to stop them, and one of them struck the other and killed him. (7) Then the whole clan confronted your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother, that we may put him to death for the slaying of his brother, even though we wipe out the heir.’ Thus they would quench the last ember remaining to me, and leave my husband without name or remnant upon the earth.” (8) The king said to the woman, “Go home. I will issue an order in your behalf.” (9) And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord king, may the guilt be on me and on my ancestral house; Your Majesty and his throne are guiltless.” (10) The king said, “If anyone says anything more to you, have him brought to me, and he will never trouble you again.” (11) She replied, “Let Your Majesty be mindful of the LORD your God and restrain the blood avenger bent on destruction, so that my son may not be killed.” And he said, “As the LORD lives, not a hair of your son shall fall to the ground.” (12) Then the woman said, “Please let your maidservant say another word to my lord the king.” “Speak on,” said the king. (13) And the woman said, “Why then have you planned the like against God’s people? In making this pronouncement, Your Majesty condemns himself in that Your Majesty does not bring back his own banished one. (14) We must all die; we are like water that is poured out on the ground and cannot be gathered up. God will not take away the life of one who makes plans so that no one may be kept banished. (15) And the reason I have come to say these things to the king, my lord, is that the people have frightened me. Your maidservant thought I would speak to Your Majesty; perhaps Your Majesty would act on his handmaid’s plea. (16) For Your Majesty would surely agree to deliver his handmaid from the hands of anyone [who would seek to] cut off both me and my son from the heritage of God. (17) Your maidservant thought, ‘Let the word of my lord the king provide comfort; for my lord the king is like an angel of God, understanding everything, good and bad.’ May the LORD your God be with you.” (18) In reply, the king said to the woman, “Do not withhold from me anything I ask you!” The woman answered, “Let my lord the king speak.” (19) The king asked, “Is Joab in league with you in all this?” The woman replied, “As you live, my lord the king, it is just as my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab was the one who instructed me, and it was he who told your maidservant everything she was to say. (20) It was to conceal the real purpose of the matter that your servant Joab did this thing. My lord is as wise as an angel of God, and he knows all that goes on in the land.”

Meaning that she knew how to organize her thoughts with wisdom and knowledge, and here she is asked to make her self look like a woman who has been mourning for many days, which will be in the way she dresses, she will not anoint with oil, she will cry, and will mourn in front of the king.

GEMARA: The Gemara notes the effect of Tekoa’s oil on those living there: The verse states: “And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched from there a wise woman” (II Samuel 14:2). What is different about Tekoa that Joab chose to bring a woman from there? Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Since the residents of Tekoa are accustomed to use olive oil, wisdom is prevalent there.

(46) When all the citizens of the Tower of Shechem learned of this, they went into the tunnel of the temple of El-berith. (47) When Abimelech was informed that all the citizens of the Tower of Shechem had gathered [there], (48) Abimelech and all the troops he had with him went up on Mount Zalmon. Taking an ax in his hand, Abimelech lopped off a tree limb and lifted it onto his shoulder. Then he said to the troops that accompanied him, “What you saw me do—quick, do the same!” (49) So each of the troops also lopped off a bough; then they marched behind Abimelech and laid them against the tunnel, and set fire to the tunnel over their heads. Thus all the people of the Tower of Shechem also perished, about a thousand men and women. (50) Abimelech proceeded to Thebez; he encamped at Thebez and occupied it. (51) Within the town was a fortified tower; and all the citizens of the town, men and women, took refuge there. They shut themselves in, and went up on the roof of the tower. (52) Abimelech pressed forward to the tower and attacked it. He approached the door of the tower to set it on fire. (53) But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and cracked his skull. (54) He immediately cried out to his attendant, his arms-bearer, “Draw your dagger and finish me off, that they may not say of me, ‘A woman killed him!’” So his attendant stabbed him, and he died.

(18) On the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us in the house. (19) During the night this woman’s child died, because she lay on it. (20) She arose in the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom; and she laid her dead son in my bosom. (21) When I arose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, it was not the son I had borne.” (22) The other woman spoke up, “No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!” But the first insisted, “No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!” And they went on arguing before the king. (23) The king said, “One says, ‘This is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and the other says, ‘No, the dead boy is yours, mine is the live one.’ (24) So the king gave the order, “Fetch me a sword.” A sword was brought before the king, (25) and the king said, “Cut the live child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.” (26) But the woman whose son was the live one pleaded with the king, for she was overcome with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she cried, “give her the live child; only don’t kill it!” The other insisted, “It shall be neither yours nor mine; cut it in two!” (27) Then the king spoke up. “Give the live child to her,” he said, “and do not put it to death; she is its mother.” (28) When all Israel heard the decision that the king had rendered, they stood in awe of the king; for they saw that he possessed divine wisdom to execute justice.

And two women came forward, who were they? Rav says they were ghosts (ruchot). The rabbi say they were widows awaiting Levrite marriages (yevamot)

(8) One day Elisha visited Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to have a meal; and whenever he passed by, he would stop there for a meal. (9) Once she said to her husband, “I am sure it is a holy man of God who comes this way regularly. (10) Let us make a small enclosed upper chamber and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand there for him, so that he can stop there whenever he comes to us.” (11) One day he came there; he retired to the upper chamber and lay down there. (12) He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call that Shunammite woman.” He called her, and she stood before him. (13) He said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak in your behalf to the king or to the army commander?’” She replied, “I live among my own people.” (14) “What then can be done for her?” he asked. “The fact is,” said Gehazi, “she has no son, and her husband is old.” (15) “Call her,” he said. He called her, and she stood in the doorway. (16) And Elisha said, “At this season next year, you will be embracing a son.” She replied, “Please, my lord, man of God, do not delude your maidservant.” (17) The woman conceived and bore a son at the same season the following year, as Elisha had assured her. (18) The child grew up. One day, he went out to his father among the reapers. (19) [Suddenly] he cried to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” He said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” (20) He picked him up and brought him to his mother. And the child sat on her lap until noon; and he died. (21) She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and left him and closed the door. (22) Then she called to her husband: “Please, send me one of the servants and one of the she-asses, so I can hurry to the man of God and back.” (23) But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She answered, “It’s all right.” (24) She had the ass saddled, and said to her servant, “Urge [the beast] on; see that I don’t slow down unless I tell you.” (25) She went on until she came to the man of God on Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from afar, he said to his servant Gehazi, “There is that Shunammite woman. (26) Go, hurry toward her and ask her, ‘How are you? How is your husband? How is the child?’” “We are well,” she replied. (27) But when she came up to the man of God on the mountain, she clasped his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away; but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.” (28) Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say: ‘Don’t mislead me’?” (29) He said to Gehazi, “Tie up your skirts, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. And place my staff on the face of the boy.” (30) But the boy’s mother said, “As the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you!” So he arose and followed her. (31) Gehazi had gone on before them and had placed the staff on the boy’s face; but there was no sound or response. He turned back to meet him and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” (32) Elisha came into the house, and there was the boy, laid out dead on his couch. (33) He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. (34) Then he mounted [the bed] and placed himself over the child. He put his mouth on its mouth, his eyes on its eyes, and his hands on its hands, as he bent over it. And the body of the child became warm. (35) He stepped down, walked once up and down the room, then mounted and bent over him. Thereupon, the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes. (36) [Elisha] called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman,” and he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”

There [lived] a prominent woman. [I.e.,] an important [woman]. And I saw in Pirkei of Rabbi Eliezer,¹⁰Chapter 23. that she was the sister of Avishag the Shunamis.¹¹See I Melochim 1:1-4.¹²She is also identified as the mother of Iddo the prophet.—Radak See I Melochim 13:1 and Rashi there.

Many women have done well (Proverbs 31:29): ... "Her children rise and declare her happy" - this is the Shunamite, who is called a great woman (II Kings 4:8). And because of what? Because she pressed upon Elisha to eat.

Regarding the woman from Shunem: “And she said to her husband: Behold now, I perceive that he is a holy man of God who passes by us continually” (II Kings 4:9). Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: From here, where the woman from Shunem perceived the prophet’s greatness before her husband did, derive that a woman recognizes the character of her guests more than a man does. The Gemara notes that the woman from Shunem said that “he is holy.” The Gemara asks: From where did she know that he was holy? Rav and Shmuel disagreed over this. One of them said: She never saw a fly pass over his table; and the other said: She spread a white linen sheet on his bed, and despite that even the smallest stain is visible on white linen, and nocturnal seminal emissions are not uncommon, she never saw the residue of a seminal emission on it.