• Rizpah appears "so obscure that she doesn't even, in most of the study Bibles I looked at, warrant a chapter heading ... she is a 'by the way, there was a woman by the name of Rizpah'" storyline. (Renita Weems)
• Walter Brueggemann wonders if we have two parties who differ on David's efforts to centralize the government by transitioning from a tribal society to a monarchy.

Rizpah's roles

• Pious support for David's rise to power
• Victim in the hands of ruthless men
• Mother/victim vulnerable to the ethnic violence imposed upon her sons
• Defenseless widow of a dead king
• Silent advocate for justice

Womanist Perspectives

• Weems acknowledges Rizpah's presence as someone who "fights back by beating back the buzzards."
• Melchanthon declares Rizpah to be someone who "redeems the conscience and the soul" of her community and people.
• For the most part, the feminists and womanists see Rizpah as a courageous bold woman who stands in solidarity with the dead and who hold the 'powers to be' accountable for their actions.

Key Terms

• Hôqia (impale) has several meanings. It can be translated as ritual dismemberment, execute, hang/lynch, crucifixion in the sun, expose with arms and legs broken, and hurl them down.
• Rizpah is is identified as Saul's pileges. She is a concubine or secondary wife who is identified by her mother's maiden name.

Rizpah's Actions

• As a mother, Rizpah mourns for her sons and all other sons slain by the State and brutally murdered for someone else's gain.
• Her nonverbal actions demonstrate her understanding of the situation.
• Takes refuge in the public square and holds a vigil over the dead bodies as a visible act of protest.
• Reinterpretation of the oracle's message to God.
• David acknowledges Rizpah's actions by collecting the bodies and ashes of Saul and Jonathan and burying them.
• Silent testimony

Testimony and Witnessing

It was in their own "invisible institution", the "hush Harbors", that the slaves were free to create "vehicles for expressing the sprit and gaining strength" to persevere; it was there that the field hollers, work songs, spirituals, and even the blues had their beginnings as the slaves rediscovered theor own 'sacred being through songs, rituals, music, and dance.' The experience was truly spiritual ... 'as we laid down our burdens, we became light As we testified and listened to others testify, we began to understand ourselves as communal beings, no longer the kind of person that the slave system tried to make of us. Through our participation in these rituals, we became one. We became again, a community.

M. Shawn Copeland quotes Dona Richards, "The Implications of African-American Spirituality," in African Culture: The Rhythms of Unity.

Testimony

Testimonies rely on several sources:
Spirit, Bible, self, context, imagination, and God.
The Bible provides the stories, images, and framework for the testimony.

Testimony (cont.)

• A pedagogical tool for faith formation and biblical interpretation
• Narrative analyses in which a speaker:
  • presents a problem,
  • recounts God's intervention,
  • provides some type of biblical reinterpretation of the event, and
  • concludes with a praise report.

Testimony (cont.)

• Form of Truth Telling
  • time of critical reflection
  • system of accountability
  • persuasive event
  • Experience is the cornerstone of testimonies - the witness to God is the lived response
• Communal Experience
  • Requires a speaker and witness(es)
  • Given in a call and response pattern

Testimony (cont.)

• Spiritual Practice
  • Restorative
  • Emancipatory
  • Transformative
  • An act of community building, affirmation, and healing.

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