Hannevi'ah and Hannah

Is it possible to discern women prophets' utterances embedded within lyrics of prophetic books? If so, women prophets would be represented as implied composers along with men.

This study offers a reliable method in this effort, based on the sound patterns of lyrical Hebrew that disclose a consistent, clear 'signature' of women's oral composing more broadly, and a different signature of men's composing, across all lyrical genres and historical periods.

Integrating feminist, postcolonial, and indigenous cultural approaches as well, this inquiry moves past closed doors of previous suppositions, including that ancient Israel was simply patriarchal.

This methodological key, when turned, unlocks and throws open a window on a significant women's Hebraic composing tradition resounding in texts where women's voices are attributed, and where they are unattributed. It also brings a new appreciation of a practice, at times, of female and male prophets lyricizing in partnership, in a culture whose women, individually or as a group, were not always given credit for their contributions.


""Not just for feminists or Biblical specialists (though they will love it) this unique and moving work of love, suffused with compassion, poetry, and mature wisdom, enlightens us all. The scholarship is impeccable, the oral approach illuminating, and the end result a jewel. Outstanding.""
--Professor Ruth Finnegan FBA, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University

""I know of no one in our discipline who pays such close and sustained attention to the detail of the text as does Nancy Lee. . . . In a culture of rushed reading and skimming of texts, Lee shows us the immense gain in slowing down. . . . The fact that this study is concerned with woman-power in the tradition of the text is of great importance for our ongoing work. I anticipate that this book will evoke a fresh wave of scholarship among those who take the text seriously.""
--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

""In this groundbreaking book, Lee identifies a woman's lyrical tradition in the prophets of ancient Israel. Through a sophisticated use of a contemporary scholarly technique and a close reading of the Hebrew text, [she] uncovers distinctive poetic patterns in women's voices in contrast to men's voices. . . . I have read these texts all my life but I did not see these patterns until Professor Lee identified them.""
--Rabbi Steven Bob, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Etz Chaim; author of Go to Nineveh and Jonah and the Meaning of Our Lives



Nancy C. Lee is Professor of Religious Studies at Elmhurst College and honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. She is the author of Lyrics of Lament (2010) and The Singers of Lamentations (2002). She has contributed to The Bible and Women (2013) and to The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Bible and the Arts (2015).