Battered Love

Weems's pioneering study explores the puzzling ways in which the hebrew prophetsportrayals of divine love, compassion, and conventional commitment often became associated with battery, infidelity, and the rape and mutilation of women. she wrestles with the prophetsrhetoric and sexual metaphors to uncover israelite social structures, asking, "what is implied about women, men, and god by the language that the prophets use to describe the covenant between yahweh and israel?" this provocative work by a leading african american biblical scholar delves deeply into issues of intimacy and power, violence and control, seduction and betrayal, and is a searing indictment of the axial points of israelite religion-its covenantal and prophetic traditions-and their authority today. renita j. weems is associate professor of hebrew bible at vanderbilt divinity school.