Mara pondered this. She still had guilty feelings. She still questioned whether she had transgressed the Mosaic injunction to honor her father and mother, but she thought she had an answer.
"Everything I’ve done," she said, "I’ve done in the spirit of righteousness. Sometimes you must defy your parents if they stand between you and the Lord’s will. It’s not dishonoring your parents to follow the path He wants you to follow. The hard part is making sure you’re really doing God’s will."
"And you’re certain this is His will? You’re certain he wants us to marry?"
"Certain of that and certain he wouldn’t sentence me to misery as Ish-bosheth’s concubine."
"I suppose this means we should discuss the business of our betrothal."
"Yes," Mara said, smiling. "Yes, I suppose we should."
Tobiah held her close again, and both stared westward into the brilliant sunset.
Life would never be easy – especially after antagonizing Saul – but at least they would have each other, and that was everything Mara needed.
Bibliography
ספראות
Ben-Yehuda, Ehud and David Weinstein. Ben-Yehuda’s Pocket English-Hebrew Hebrew- English Dictionary, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964.
Dummelow, J.R. (editor). The One Volume Bible Commentary, New York: Macmillan, 1978.
Jones, Helen Hinckley. Enchantment of the World: Israel, Chicago: Regensteiner Publishing, 1995.
Jovinelly, Joann and Jason Netelkos. The Crafts and Culture of the Ancient Hebrews, New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2002.
Keller, Werner. The Bible as History, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1956.
Kent, Charles Foster. A History of the Hebrew People, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916.
Landes, George M. A Student’s Vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961.
Levenston, Edward A. and Reuven Sivan. The New Bantam-Megiddo Hebrew & English Dictionary, New York: Bantam Books, 1975.
Mackie, George M. Bible Manners and Customs, New York: Revell, 1896.
Martell, Hazel Mary. The Ancient World, New York: Kingfisher, 2001.
Pritchard, James B. Archaeology and the Old Testament, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958.
Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Oxford: Facts on File, 1990.
Rogerson, John. The Cultural Atlas of the World: The Bible, Alexandria, Va.: Stonehenge Press, 1992.
Slavik, Diane. Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Jerusalem, Minneapolis: Runestone Press, 2001.
A Captain in Israel Page 25