But if a priest's daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child and returns to her father's house as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's food; but no layman shall eat of it.Given my thoughts from last chapter, this caught my eye. Before I was asking looking at the stigma of divorce, but here there is no stigma, under certain conditions. Maybe that's because of a single woman's social status, I don't know.
What also interests me here is the condition, that she has no child. Why is it okay for a now-unattached woman to return to her father's house, but one with children isn't? Wouldn't a mother be more in need? I have two theories, both of which are only guesses. First, having a child makes you part of the father's household, and it is therefore the father's family's responsibility to care for you (though I'd think that would break down in the case of divorce). The other guess is that since the child in this case is of mixed tribes, that disqualifies them from eating of the priestly food.
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