Capture a Comely Woman

Naphtali, an Israelite commander, takes his army into battle against a Hittite fortress, obeying God’s commandment to enter the promised land and destroy pagan abominations. After making an offer of peace, he lays siege to the fortress city causing Marnist, the Hittite army commander, to send Rami, his beautiful daughter and his wife, Jolen, onto a secret oath to escape capture by the Israelites. The escape plan sets of a sequence of events leading to their capture, subject to Hebrew laws demanding humane treatment of women captured in battle.＂Capture a Comely Woman,＂ reveals the first attempt in recorded history to force humane treatment of women taken in battle. When passions are aroused, what happens to these captured women? What is to be their lot?In the heat of conflict, Avner, a devout follower of the commandments, captures Rami, intending to take her home ’to wife.’ He stands by the proscribed thirty day period of abstinence, while Rami’s hair is shorn, fingernails pared and clothes burned. Deeply in love with his captured beauty, Avner laments Rami’s cold response, although he believes that kindness will win her love. Rami struggles to regain the life she once envisioned for herself.

Ed Semon, retired from teaching reading and study skills at Waukesha County Technical College, is now living the Wisconsin dream with his artist wife Jeanine, on beautiful Bolton Lake near Lac du Flambeau. Between swimming and boating, he writes for the theater, short stories and novels.