An intertextual conversation on interspecies ethics: 2 Samuel 12:1-4 and Proverbs 27:23-27

Nonhuman animals pervade biblical texts. In Samuel, for example (the focal text for this volume), they appear in 44 of the 55 chapters. Despite this, however, they are often left out of scholarly analyses, brushed aside as mere background, or as symbols or props for human affairs. And despite the rise of ecological and other justice-oriented hermeneutics, interspecies justice has yet to meet the Biblical Studies mainstream. This chapter offers a counterbalance to this tendency. Using intertextuality as a heuristic tool to read texts differently, it focalises the domestic animals of 2 Sam 12:1-4, in conversation with those of Proverbs 27:23-27. It proposes that glimpses of interspecies ethics can be found, as well as shadows of interspecies harm. It further suggests that the human-animal hierarchy is intertwined with interhuman hierarchies, with broader ramifications for social justice.