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11:3, 8, 9; 1 Peter 3:7). Several women are mentioned in Scripture as having been endowed with prophetic gifts, as Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4, 5), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14), Anna (Luke 2:36, 37), and the daughters of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:8, 9). Women are forbidden to teach publicly (1 Corinthians 14:34, 35; 1 Timothy 2:11, 12). Among the Hebrews it devolved upon women to prepare the meals for the household (Genesis 18:6; 2 Samuel 13:8), to attend to the work of spinning (Exodus 35:26; Proverbs 31:19), and making clothes (1 Samuel 2:19; Proverbs 31:21), to bring water from the well (Genesis 24:15; 1 Samuel 9:11), and to care for the flocks (Genesis 29:6; Exodus 2:16).
The word “woman,” as used in Matthew 15:28, John 2:4 and 20:13, 15, implies tenderness and courtesy and not disrespect. Only where revelation is known has woman her due place of honour assigned to her.
•WOOD See FOREST.
•WOOL one of the first material used for making woven cloth (Leviticus 13:47, 48, 52, 59; 19:19). The first-fruit of wool was to be offered to the priests (Deuteronomy 18:4). The law prohibiting the wearing of a garment “of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together” (Deuteronomy 22:11) may, like some other laws of a similar character, have been intended to express symbolically the separateness and simplicity of God’s covenant people. The wool of Damascus, famous for its whiteness, was of great repute in the Tyrian market (Ezekiel 27:18).