I surprised myself by getting engrossed in a book called The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I am always fascinated by books that show how people lived their day to day lives in the early years that we read about in the Bible. The Red Tent depicted what life might have been like for the women in Jacob’s life.

Sandra Hack Polaski has written a book that follows the story and is called Inside the Red Tent. It goes deeper into the lives of Leah, Rachel, Zil’pah, Bil’hah, and Leah’s daughter Dinah, probing aspects of The Red Tent that give us insight into the text and into the lives of women in the ancient Near East. I have to have this book!

These books claim no historical facts. They were written for entertainment purposes. It is so interesting to read how women lived in ancient times. I am glad I live in the days of cars and washing machines.