They, in turn, would have more children. The existence of the nation, as well as the well-being of particular women, may be threatened by the birth of too many children. The biblical tradition does not measure the goodness of women by their sexual behavior or by their conformity to any norm of sexual conduct. Any woman can be called blessed, the chosen of God, in biblical faith. The Court, which can decide what the people of the nation have the right to do, cannot begin to decide what makes them good or bad.
Morality occurs in situations of choice-always as a matter of choice.
None of the choices made long ago by those biblical women were easy. Their moral and their sexual decisions were not clearly right or wrong, but they are remembered in the religious record as women who wisely handled difficult situations. In neither situation did their mothers rescue them. Moses was saved from Pharaoh's soldiers by his sister and the princess of Egypt. Jesus was saved from Herod's soldiers by an archangel who told his father to get out of town.