336 Bernard P. Robinson Further, how credible is the proposal of Marcus and Reis to take in 11,31 metaphorically? The nearest approach that hlw[ whtyl[hw Marcus can cite for a spiritual hlw[ is to be found in Num 8,11.13. 21, where the Levites are presented to God as a “special gift” (REB), a spiritual hpwrt. This, I think, is not very strong evidence for finding in Judg 11 the idea of a spiritual hlw[. What of Gen 22,1-14? It may well be the case, as is forcefully argued by Moberly, that this story, in which Abraham is commanded to offer his son but, the order having been countermanded, sacrifices a ram instead, has a metaphorical value (18), but I doubt that it can be used to argue for finding in Judg 11 the idea of consecrated virginity, which is remote from what happens in Gen 22. Consecration to God, such as occurred with Samuel (1 Sam 1) and Samson (Judg 13,5.7; 16,17), is without parallel in the case of a girl (although the priestly law of the Nazirites in Num 6 does say [v. 2] that both men and women can make this vow). Both Samson and Samuel, of course, were married. Attempts to find such consecrated virgins in Exod 38,8 and 1 Sam 2,22 carry little conviction. Exod 38,8 speaks of the laver being made “from mirrors (?) of serving (?) women who served (?) at the entrance of the tent of meeting”. 1 Sam 2,22 has Eli hearing that his sons “had lain with women who served (?) at the entrance of the tent of meeting”. Even if these texts speak of women with some sort of cultic role (this is the probable meaning of the root abx that is used here), there is nothing to say that they were unmarried (19). Keddell thinks that the thirty-two Midianite virgins who are assigned to YHWH in Num 31,40 are to be thought of as consecrated to Temple-service, but this is very speculative (20). So too with Wood’s suggestion that in Judg 21,19-21 the “daughters of Shiloh” captured as wives for the Benjamites had been tabernacle- (18) R.W.L. MOBERLY, The Bible, Theology and Faith. A Study of Abraham and Jesus (Cambridge 2000) 127-131. (19) In Exod, LXX speaks of women fasting, Pesh and Ibn Ezra of their praying, Vg of their lying in watch, Rashi and Nachmanides of their crowding in. In 1 Sam, Vg has them waiting. LXX (“what his sons had done to the children of Israel”) and Pesh (“how they reviled the women who prayed”) seem to presuppose different readings from MT. (20) J.S. KEDDELL, A Dissertation on the Vow of Jephthah (London 1840) 19-21. It is hard to reconcile such a future with 31,16: the Midianite womenfolk were chiefly responsible for the Beor episode. (On the other hand, since these thirty-two are not killed and are not married off to Levites, it is unclear what fate is prescribed for them).