Kalmanofsky A. Israel’s Baby: The Horror of Childbirth in the Biblical Prophets

Biblical Interpretation 16 (2008) 60-82.Using verbal threats and graphic images of destruction, the biblical prophets employed the rhetoric of horror to terrify their audience. Modern theories about the genre of horrors provide insight into the prophets’ rhetoric. This paper examines the image of the laboring woman within the context of the prophets’ horror rhetoric. This image captures the physical and emotional experience of Israel awaiting Babylonian conquest and conveys the irony and futility of Israel’s situation. The image also serves as a strategy of cross-gender identification, common in the horror genre, which asks a predominantly male audience to identify with a female character. This strategy reveals the essential elements of biblical horror — fear and shame — and uses these elements to motivate wayward Israel to repent. By identifying with the birthing woman, Israel will come to recognize its physical and emotional vulnerability, the futility and disgrace of its situation, and strive to reform.