News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) New stamps issued this month include three descriptions and pictures of women in the Bible. The post office noted that despite the patriarchal society of Biblical times, "women are not depicted as inferior to men, morally or intellectually."

One stamp illustrates Miriam, the sister of Moses, who convinced the daughter of Pharaoh to let him be nursed by their mother after the Egyptian found him floating in a basket on the Nile, where Pharaoh had ordered baby Jewish boys to be drowned.

Another stamp shows Esther, who saved the Jews of Persia from destruction by unmasking a plan by Haman, the second in power to the king, to kill all the Jews in the empire. A third stamp depicts Jael, wife of Hever the Kenite, who killed a Canaanite general during a war against Israel. The prophetess Deborah praised her in Judges 5:24: "Blessed above the women shall Jael, the wife of Kenite, be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent."