The Wise Woman Of Abel - Her Life And Times

The Wise Woman of Abel - Her Life And Times

SIEGE

When Joab’s men gathered outside of Abel Beth Maacah, a wise woman braved the warriors gathered outside and bargained with Joab for the life of Abel’s inhabitants. No doubt she and others like her were part of the reason that Abel was known as “a city that is a mother in Israel” (2 Samuel 20:19), a place to go for answers to life’s difficult questions. Its inhabitants must have been shrewd as well as wise to gain such notoriety.

War was a regular feature of life for the Israelites, so much so that freedom from war gained special notice in Scripture (Joshua 11:23; 14:15; 2 Chronicles 14:6 – 7). Battles between opposing armies were often waged in valleys or other wide-open spaces. Inhabitants of embattled areas would flee to the nearest walled and fortified city. In order to gain entrance and control of such a city, armies would gather outside the city walls and prevent anyone from going in or going out. When water and food became scarce or ran out altogether, the city’s inhabitants would be forced to surrender.

When a city surrendered, its populace could look forward to one of two consequences: death or slavery. Often the deprivation and horror of a siege were preferable to surrender and its results. Depending on how well the city was prepared, a siege could last anywhere from days to weeks to months. An army of Egypt besieged the Philistine city of Ashdod for an incredible twenty-nine years.

Occupants of fortified cities spent much time in preparation for sieges. Strengthening the walls, gathering and storing extra food, and figuring out a way to gather and store large amounts of water required time and expertise. Some cities built long underground tunnels to allow water to flow freely into the city. Builders of these tunnels took care to disguise the water’s source, for armies could then easily cut it off or use it to gain entrance into the city. Sometimes huge cisterns were dug within the city walls to catch and store rain water.

The attacking army outside a city’s walls would move vast amounts of earth to build ramps to the upper parts of the city wall. From these ramps they would then use battering rams to attempt to break down the wall in that area, all the while defending themselves against the arrows and rocks and darts of the city’s inhabitants. Joab’s army built such a ramp and battered the wall of Abel in order to capture it and the rebel Sheba, who had taken refuge within. But rather than throwing down arrows or rocks, the wise woman of Abel shouted words of conciliation, and in so doing, preserved innocent lives.