Antje Labahn - Ehud Ben Zvi, «Observations on Women in the Genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9», Vol. 84 (2003) 457-478

These observations address the construction of women and their roles in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9. References to women in these chapters construed them as fulfilling a variety of roles in society, and characterized and identified them in various ways. To be sure, the genealogies reflected and reinforced the main construction of family and family roles in a traditional ancient near eastern society. But, numerous references in these genealogies indicated to the early (and predominantly male) readers of the book that ideologically construed gender expectations may and have been transgressed in the past and with good results. By implication, these references suggested to the readers that gender (and ethnic) boundaries can and even should be transgressed on occasion, with divine blessing, and resulting in divine blessing.

any genealogical list therefore, at least implicitly, acknowledges and communicates the centrality of childbirth and of the females in society, even if they remain unmentioned in the literary portrait, and if they are excluded from the explicit wording of the text. In fact, even these "erasures" of women speak volumes.

        Of course, the procreation of new generations was understood within the realm of a (traditional, patriarchal) family. Thus women were not only mothers of children but also wives of husbands, or at least concubines (#glyp) of the father by whom they had children⁷.

        As expected in any ancient Near Eastern society, in 1 Chr 1–9 women are also referred to and identified as daughters of someone. In addition, there are explicit references to women in another type of basic kinship relation, namely in terms of sisters, either as a sister of the pater familias in the older generation or as a sister of a son within the younger generation of children of the household of the father. Although these references are not absolutely necessary to maintain the (patriarchal) lineage, the genealogies of Chronicles mention several women in these kinship relations.

1. Mother - Wife

        As expected, women are often mentioned in the genealogies of Chronicles as mothers. For instance, in 1 Chr 2,21, the readers of the book find a reference to the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead (notice the usual construction of identity as daughter of X). Her husband, Hezron, married her when he was sixty years old — her age is not mentioned, see below. She bore a son, Segub. In 2,24 the text mentions Abijah, wife of Hezron, who after the death of her husband bore him a son, Ashhur, who became the father of Tekoa⁸. Hodesh was the mother of seven sons (1 Chr 8,9). Maacah, the wife of the