Women and Work in the Old Testament: Bible Study
This Bible study is part of The Bible and Your Work Study Series.
In every period in the life of God’s people in the Old Testament, women were called to step forward, coming to the aid of helpless people. When God determined to give Adam a mate in Genesis 2, he called her ezer knegdo—a helper equal to the man. But that word helper can trip us up if we think of the woman as a kind of assistant or as a plumber’s apprentice. An ezer helper has knowledge or skills needed by someone else and uses them to come to that person’s aid. This Bible study looks at individual ezer women in Israel’s history—women such as Rahab as convert, Deborah as judge, Ruth as provider, Shiphrah and Puah as midwives, Miriam as leader, Abigail as intermediary, Huldah as interpreter of God’s law, Esther as queen, and Lady Wisdom of Proverbs as the sum of an ezer woman.
This Bible study guide contains Scripture references, thoughtprovoking questions, and prayers to help you explore what the Bible says about work and apply it to your life in positive, practical ways. The lessons in each chapter are designed for thirty-minute lunch breaks, although they can be used in other formats as well.
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Author: Theology of Work Project
Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org
You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.
© 2014 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.
Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
