Prosperity and Posterity

The men who knew that their wives had been burning incense to other gods said to Jeremiah, "We will not listen to you! We used to have plenty of food and prospered and saw no evil. But since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and making libations to her, we have lacked everything."

Jeremiah 44:15-18 (Abridged)

"I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace."

2 Kings 22:20

Ceramic artifacts in the niche on the upper floor: a rattle, four bottles, a small saucer lamp, a female pillar figurine and a model bed; eighth-seventh centuries B.C.E.

In order for the patriarchal family to prosper and survive, the primary goal in marriage was to have and raise children, especially boys. During childbirth expectant mothers were attended by female relatives and, if possible, by midwives, who were important members of the community.

Talismans promoting fertility and prosperity have been found in houses and burials of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E. Model beds are associated with sex and conception, the realm of the Queen of Heaven, whose worship was condemned by Jeremiah. Asherah was another of the deities, besides Yahweh, that families might turn to for aid. Pillar figurines with prominent breasts, representing a mother goddess, perhaps Asherah, were connected with birth, lactation and child survival. The rattle and small lamp were used in domestic rituals, which probably took place on the roof of the house. The figurine, bed, lamp and rattle have never been found in situ in a wall niche. However, a niche would have provided a safe place to keep them, along with small bottles of oil for libations.

Children owed respect to their parents in life, and, in death, a proper burial in the family tomb. Down the hill from the oil press a large stone seals the entrance to the cave where dead family members were laid to rest. Pottery vessels, food and a variety of other items like jewelry, figurines and lamps were provided for the deceased's welfare in the afterlife. Funerary banquets celebrated by the family expressed the continuing relationship between the living and the dead.

The tomb represented the family's claim to the land, and it served to remind the living of their obligation to preserve their patrimony. They needed to do this not only for the dead, whose well-being in the afterlife depended on it, but also for themselves, so that they, in their turn, would be gathered to their ancestors in peace.