Between us
the smoke into the room and over the body of the bride. They wove her wreathes of myrtle leaves. They hung chains of fruit all around the sides of the cart soon to carry the maiden through the village to her husband, who was waiting in another house. They draped ever- green boughs around the cart’s bench on which she would sit, the bride, while riding through the village. Naomi combed Milcah’s wet hair and twisted it and oiled it into a deep sheen, then stood back to marvel at the column of grace before her. “You are beautiful, child. You are
Naomi prepares a bride T
By Walter Wangerin Jr.
he book of Judges recounts the slow deterioration of the tribes of Israel. Shortly after Joshua dies, the people disobey the God of their covenant. They suffer the consequences. But then God remem- bers them and saves them from their enemies by raising up a series of charismatic judges.
Deborah, the mother of Israel, leads them to victory. Gideon likewise hears God’s call and com- mands them in the name of the Lord—to victory. But generation after generation the disobedience increases, until the
Wangerin, an author of many novels and books of essays, is an ELCA pastor and senior research professor at Valparaiso [Ind.] University (
walterwangerinjr.org). His “Between us” col- umn appears quarterly in The Lutheran.
book of Judges ends with a horren- dous war. Read the book’s last chap- ters, 19 to 21, and see how bloody a people can be. I wrote a novel (Naomi and Her Daughters) that moves from these disasters into the mercy of the book of Ruth. Here is one chapter of the good days that precede the wars. I’ve imagined Naomi’s participa- tion in the marriage of the Levite’s bride, whom I have named Milcah. The details that follow are histori- cally accurate.
•••
A woman marries on Wednesday. Everyone knows that she is a virgin if she marries on a Wednesday. Milcah stood naked in a great basin of warm water. The water was scented. So was the oil with which Naomi massaged her ivory-white skin.
The women of Bethlehem were burning an aromatic tree bark in Elimelech’s courtyard. To drive away unhealthy spirits, they fanned
28 The Lutheran •
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so beautiful.” She offered her daughter a hand and helped her step from the basin onto the pretty little dais that Elimelech had built for the bride’s white feet.
Naomi set a pot of liquid henna on the shelf beside her elbow. She dipped the fine hairs of a brush into the dye, then with unerring strokes drew designs on skin as smooth as vellum: whorls on the back of Milcah’s hands; arabesques up her arms and shoulders; lines of the red-brown dye, scrolled between her breasts and down her stomach even to the closing of her thighs— all surprises for her husband in the lamplight.
Naomi enlarged her daughter’s eyes with charcoal above and below her lashes, and with lines drawn back to each of her temples. “You are so beautiful.” Then the women came forward and dressed Milcah in a supple tunic, over which they poured, as it were, a robe of shining fleece. And upon her bosom a necklace of agate stones. Naomi moved to the doorframe. She looked through the courtyard to the gate.
“Elimelech.” Milcah’s mother radiated
gladness.
SHUTTERSTOCK
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