Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
that she does not see the insult of the custom. We have had in this
generation one married woman in England, and one in America, who had
one name from birth to death, and though married they kept it. Think of
the inconvenience of vanishing as it were from your friends and,
correspondents three times in one's natural life.
In helping the children of Israel to escape from the land of Egypt the
Lord said to Moses:
Exodus iii.
19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not
by a mighty hand.
20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders
which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians:
and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighhour, and of her that
sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and
raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters;
and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
The role assigned the women, in helping the children of Israel to
escape in safety from bondage, is by no means complimentary
to their heroism or honesty. To help bear the expenses of the journey,
they were instructed to steal all the jewels of silver and gold, and
all the rich raiment of the Egyptian ladies. The Lord and Moses no
doubt went on the principle that the Israelites had richly earned all
in the years of their bondage. This is the position that some of our
good abolitionists took, when Africans were escaping from American
bondage, that the slaves had the right to seize horses, boats, anything
to help them to Canada, to find safety in the shadow of the British
lion. Some of our pro-slavery clergymen, who no doubt often read the
third chapter of Exodus to their congregations, forgot the advice of
Moses, in condemning the abolitionists; as the Americans had stolen the
African's body and soul, and kept them in hopeless bondage for
generations--they had richly earned whatever they needed to help them
to the land of freedom. Stretch the principle of natural rights a
little further, and ask the question, why should women, denied all
their political rights, obey laws to which they have never given their
consent, either by proxy or in person? Our fathers in an inspired
moment said, "No just government can be formed without the consent of
the governed."
Women have had no voice in the canon law, the catechisms, the church
creeds and discipline, and why should they obey the behests of a
strictly masculine religion, that places the sex at a disadvantage in
all life's emergencies?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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