The Hebrew Bible contains a number of references to rape and other forms of sexual violence, both in the Law of Moses, its historical narratives and its prophetic poetry.
History of scholarship Until well into the 20th century, academic consensus did not view the Hebrew Bible as containing acts of rape, that is, sexual actions performed without the consent of a participant, apart from the rape of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13. Some narratives such as those of Samson and Delilah (Judges 16) and Shechem and Dinah (Genesis 34) were even interpreted to be love stories (e.g. about elopement) rather than rape stories. An example of a rare exception to this is a claim by Thomas Paine, who asserted in The Age of Reason (1795) that Numbers 31 portrayed Moses as ordering the Israelites to kill all Midianites except the virgin girls, whom they could keep for what Paine termed "debauchery": "Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world would have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters." In An Apology for the Bible (1796), Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, sought to refute Paine's arguments: "I see nothing in this proceeding, but good policy, combined with mercy. ... The women-children were not reserved for the purposes of debauchery, but of slavery." (8th edition) In any case, Paine was not so much focused on sexual violence in particular; this example was part of his general critique of Christian ethics. Johannes Pedersen's work Israel, Its Life and Culture (1926, 1940), commonly cited by scholars for information about Israelite sexual mores, never mentioned rape, only "forbidden degrees of relationship". Several Bible passages, which were later widely recognised as "rape texts", were referred to by Pedersen as "inappropriate marriage arrangements".
It was not until the late 1970s, with the emergence of the anti-rape movement due to second-wave feminism, that feminist scholars reached the consensus that some texts in the Hebrew Bible referred to rape, such as the Levite's concubine and the Benjamites seizing the virgins of Jabesh-Gilead and Shiloh as gang rapes (Judges 19–21). However, they also initially disagreed whether some narratives such as Dinah (Genesis 34) and Hagar depicted sexual violence or not. Some of the most notable works in this formative era in the study of biblical rape literature were: Phyllis Trible's Texts of Terror: literary-feminist readings of Biblical narratives (1984), the first feminist scholarly publication which posited that Hagar (Genesis 16; 21), Tamar (2 Samuel 13) and the Levite's concubine (Judges 19) were rape narratives. J. Cheryl Exum's Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives (1993) on the wife-sister stories (Genesis 12; 20; 26), Dinah (Genesis 34), Samson and Delilah (Judges 16), the Levite's concubine (Judges 19), and Bathsheba and David (2 Samuel 11) as rape stories. Renita J. Weems' Battered Love: Marriage, Sex, and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets (1995) on sexual violence in marriage metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Jonathan Kirsch's The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible (1997) on Lot's daughters (Genesis 19), Dinah (Genesis 34), and Tamar (2 Samuel 13) as three rape stories.
With regards to the Hebrew Bible's attitude to rape, particularly the sex laws in Deuteronomy chapters 20 to 22 with respect to the beautiful captive woman, two schools of thought have emerged. In one camp are scholars such as Richard Elliott Friedman and Shawna Dolansky, who concerning "Women's Status" in The Bible Now (2011) wrote: "What should not be in doubt is the biblical view of rape: it is horrid. It is decried in the Bible's stories. It is not tolerated in the Bible's laws." In the other camp are scholars such as Harold C. Washington, who in Lest he die in the battle and another man take her': Violence and the construction of gender in the laws of Deuteronomy 20–22" (1998) concluded: "The laws do not interdict sexual violence; rather they stipulate the terms under which a man may commit rape."
Terminology Scholars such as Susanne Scholz (2021) have pointed out that meanings of words in the Hebrew Bible are contextual, and Bible translators or commentators often misinterpret terms, miss important nuances, or use euphemisms for sexual violence. Even in modern English, the verb 'to rape' does not necessarily always refer to sexual violence, but could be used metaphorically to describe being subjected to a deeply unpleasant yet non-sexual experience. Similarly, a Hebrew verb such as usually means 'to rape, to force/violate sexually', but in some non-sexual contexts is best translated as 'to oppress', 'to weaken', and so on. On the other hand, normally non-sexual words may sometimes describe something sexual; a verb such as usually means 'to crush, to destroy, to oppress', but in one particular Bible verse (Isaiah 23:12) may actually mean 'to rape' in connection with the term 'virgin daughter', as the latter has a special sexual meaning. Biblical Hebrew is also full of euphemisms and sexual slang that may be difficult for modern readers to understand. 'To lie with', 'to know', 'to come to', and 'to uncover the nakedness of' are such examples which, in particular contexts, mean 'to have sex'. Such phrases do not necessarily imply that this sex is forced by one person upon another, and could actually describe consensual sex, but especially if the context of the narrative adds forms of coercion (such as violence and intimidation) upon someone, or claims that this serves as a 'punishment', then 'to rape' becomes a plausible translation. Likewise, nouns such as 'skirts', 'nakedness' and 'shame' may be euphemisms for 'women's genitals'.
Verbs that could mean 'to rape' or 'to have sex' = (explicit) to rape, to force [sexually], to defile, to violate, to ravish, to mistreat, to afflict, to humble/humiliate, to oppress, to subject/submit/subdue, to weaken; probably means 'to rape' in Judges 20:5 and 2 Samuel 13:14. = to crush, to destroy, to oppress, (+ virgin) to rape? (Isaiah 23:12) = to come (on) to, to come upon, (euphemism) to have sex with, to enter/insert, to bring, to go, to go down (the sun) sometimes combined with el = in, into. Examples: 2 Samuel 16:21–22. = to uncover (nakedness), to strip (clothes), (implicit) to rape (pi'el) = (explicit) to sexually violate (e.g. in Genesis 34:7, Judges 19–21, 2 Samuel 13:12, and 3 Nahum 6), to make vile, to disgrace, to treat contemptuously, to make foolish , = to entice, to seduce, to persuade, to deceive, to fool, to flatter? (Proverbs 20:19), to prevail? (Ezekiel 14:9), to (al)lure? (Hosea 2:14), (in pi'el (adds force)) to coax/force sexually? (Judges 14:15, Judges 16:5, Hosea 2:14) sometimes combined with ḥāzaq = to be strong(er), to become strong/powerful, to prevail/overpower, to seize/catch, to hold/retain, to strengthen/harden (oneself, someone else, or an object e.g. Pharaoh's heart in Exodus 4–14), to repair/fortify (a defensive structure, 2 Kings 12, 2 Chronicles 11;24;26, Nehemiah), to be courageous, to encourage/persuade. Scholars debate whether the combination of pātâ and ḥāzaq, for example in Jeremiah 20:7, should be understood as rape or not. rā'â = to see (exposed genitals), (implicit) to rape šāgal = (vulgar) to ravish, to rape, to violate, (euphemistic translation) to lie with (Deuteronomy 28:30, Isaiah 13:16, Jeremiah 3:2, Zechariah 14:2) šāḵaḇ = to lie (down), to sleep, (euphemism) to lie/sleep with, (+ force) to rape. sur = to remove/strip (clothes or other objects), to take/put away, to behead/decapitate, to separate, to turn aside (or: to decline), to withdraw/retract, to depart/leave ṭāmê = (passive) to become unclean, to be pronounced unclean, (active, passive or reflexive) to defile (someone, oneself) / to be defiled, (implicit) to have illicit sex with someone / to be subjected to illicit sex by someone (by seduction or rape) tāp̄aś = to take, to catch, to capture, to grab/grasp, to seize, to lay hold, to arrest, to occupy, to profane, to handle/wield/play (an object) ṣāḥaq = (positive) to laugh, to jest/mock, to sport, to caress / make love / have sex (Genesis 26:8), to play yāda = to know, (euphemism) to have sex(ual relations) with, (euphemism) (+ force) to rape sometimes combined with miškāḇ ("bed", colloquially "lying (down)") = (literally) to know in bed, (older Bible translations) to know intimately/carnally / to know by lying with, (modern Bible translations) to have sex(ual relations) with (e.g. Numbers 31:18, where the phrase 'women children who have not known a man in bed' is sometimes translated simply as 'virgin girls') zānâ = (pejorative) to act as a harlot/whore, to play a/the harlot/whore, to go a whoring, to commit fornication, to commit whoredom, to be unfaithful/adulterous
Nouns for genitals bāṭen = womb, abdomen erwâ = nakedness, bare flesh, genitals ḥerpâ = shame, vagina ma'ar = nakedness, genitals pōṯ = (only in Isaiah 3:17, vulgar) cunt, (euphemistic translation) private parts, (fore)head/scalp, (only in 1 Kings 7:50) door socket šōḇel = skirt (also euphemism for women's genitals)
Nouns for humiliation nəḇālâ = rape, disgraceful act/thing, folly, villainy, foolishness qālôn = disgrace, dishonour, shame (also euphemism for women's genitals) ro'î = (pejorative) gazingstock, spectacle, appearance
Examples
Genesis Genesis 9
In Genesis 9:22, just after the Genesis flood narrative, it is written that Ham, a son of Noah, "saw" his father's "nakedness", a phrase which elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible can mean "had sex with". Some interpretations conclude that Ham had sex with Noah, perhaps even "sodomised" him in his sleep. The same explanations are found in three Greek translations of the Bible, which replace the word "see" in verse 22 with another word denoting homosexual relations. Because of what happened, Noah put a curse on Ham's son Canaan and his descendents, the Canaanites.
Genesis 16 Phyllis Trible (1984) was the first scholar to suggest that the story of Hagar in Genesis 16:1–4 was a rape narrative, a conclusion later supported by some feminist biblical researchers such as J. Cheryl Exum and Suzanne Scholz, but rejected by others. Some have even considered the possibility that verse 16:6 is saying that Sarah "raped" Hagar as well, since the verb used, inah in the pi'el, is sometimes used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to mean "to rape", "to mistreat" or "to oppress" (amongst other things), depending on the context. Trible rejected that idea, reasoning that it simply meant 'oppression'; womanist theologian Delores S. Williams (1993) accepted it as the sexual violation of her physical integrity; Scholz concluded that "the story does not provide a clear answer".
Genesis 19
Genesis 19 features an attempted gang rape. Two angels arrive in Sodom, and Lot shows them hospitality. However, the men of the city gathered around Lot's house and demanded that he give them the two guests so that they could rape them. In response to this, Lot offers the mob his two virgin daughters instead. The mob refuses Lot's offer, but the angels strike them with blindness, God eventually destroys the city, and Lot and his family escape.
Genesis 19 goes on to relate how Lot's daughters get him drunk and have sex with him. As a result, the eponymous ancestors of Moab and Ammon, recurring enemies of Israel, were born. A number of commentators describe their actions as rape. Esther Fuchs (2003) suggests that the text presents Lot's daughters as the "initiators and perpetrators of the incestuous 'rape'."
Gerda Lerner (1986) has suggested that because the Hebrew Bible takes for granted Lot's right to offer his daughters for rape, we can assume that it reflected a historical reality of a father's power over them.