338 Bernard P. Robinson Furthermore, the occurrence of the phrase hlw[ whl[yw, without l, in 2 Kgs 3,27 of human sacrifice (“he [Mesha] offered him [his son] as a burnt offering”) makes it likely that the suffix has the same force here. Marcus says that he personally favours a non-sacrificial interpretation (27), but he then goes on to say that the ambiguities in the text are so striking that it is quite possible that they were “consciously devised by the narrator. He chose his words so that they would be open to a number of interpretations” (28). He notes that there may have been variant traditions about the fate of Idomeneus and Iphigeneia. True enough, but one surely does not find two alternative accounts within a single telling of the story. Intentional ambiguity is certainly not absent from some Old Testament narratives, but leaving it unclear how badly David, say, or Bathsheba, or Tamar behaved is not comparable with deliberately leaving the reader uncertain whether Jephthah’s daughter ended up on a pyre or in consecrated virginity. It seems to me that views (ii)-(iv) labour under more difficulties than (i). Although, therefore, hwhyl hyhw is odd, I shall proceed on the assumption that the vow does not involve consecration to virginity. Jephthah vows to offer in sacrifice whatsoever first meets him. It is likely that he has a human being in mind: axwyh is used of human beings at Num 22,11, and never of animals; axy rça of human beings at Gen 15,4, and never of animals. The phrase “Going out to meet” is used only of people (e.g. 1 Sam 18,6), not of animals (29). A word should be said at this point about human sacrifice in Israel. Although it came to be regarded with abhorrence (laws strictly forbidding child-sacrifice are found at Lev 18,21; 20,2; Deut 12,31; 18,10), it is by no means clear that this was so from the start. J.D. Levenson has advanced a strong case for thinking otherwise(30). Exod 22,29 commands the offering to YHWH of the first-born son without the rider added in 34,20 that instead of being sacrificed he should be redeemed. Ezek 20,25-26, on a straightforward reading of it (I agree with Levenson that this is the way the text should be taken), says that (27) MARCUS, Jephthah and His Vow, 50. (28) MARCUS, Jephthah and His Vow, 52. (29) The verb to meet, arq, is however used on its own of an animal at Judg 14,5. (30) J.D. LEVENSON, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son. The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (New Haven – London 1993) 3-17.