Woman of Thebez: Mightier than the Sword

Judges 9

O great tyrant, powerful king,
you thought you had won,
thought power was strong.
See: you were wrong.

Now you lie
in a pool of blood
dying
at a woman's hand,
your head bashed in
by kitchenware.

The millstone is mightier than the sword.

Fear went before you,
destruction followed,
fire swallowed
women and men.
They said you were unstoppable,
they said you were unbeatable.
They thought power was strong.
Seems they were wrong.

Ashamed to die
at woman's hand,
your head bashed in
by kitchenware.

The millstone is mightier than the sword.

Not power is strong,
but furious love,
the love that burns behind the stove,
the love that feeds little open mouths,
the love that like a millstone
works hard day after day,
invisible until
she is unleashed,
protective
fearless
mightier
than a thousand armies.

The millstone is mightier than the sword.
Mother is mightier than king.
Woman is mightier than all your armies.
I am mightier than you.

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[21. July 2019]

During the time of the judges Abimelech, son of Gideon, attempted to start a monarchy. He killed all 70 of his brothers to remove all competition. He reacted harshly against resistance, e.g. by burning a thousand people alive at Shechem. Thebez was his next stop - and his last. While he and his army were besieging Thebez, a woman threw a millstone down on his head - dying, he asked his armour-bearer to kill him so he wouldn't have to bear the "shame" of having been killed by a woman (eye-roll).

Anyway when I re-read this story last, I realised the fact that a millstone is a kitchen utensil (used to grind grain and things like that) - and liked the irony of that. In fact the Bible is full of ironies like this - mighty men losing to women who aren't using weapons, but household items or other "weak"-seeming things (Jael and the tent peg, Delilah and a haircut, Judith an flirting...). Looks like true power is not where we are used to finding it...

Art: Charles Foster