© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi �0.��63/�5685330-� �34��55 Vetus Testamentum 64 (�0 �4) �66-�78 brill.com/vt Vetus Testamentum The Frame of Sacrificing in Judges Talia Sutskover The Department of Hebrew Culture Studies Bible Unit Tel Aviv University, Israel talist@post.tau.ac.il Abstract Elements of the semantic frame of Sacrificing recurrently appear at key positions throughout the narratives of Judges. Humans in Judges are violently treated as ani- mals, and many times treated as victims brought to sacrifice. This is the case of Ehud Ben Gera killing Eglon, the cutting of Adoni-Bezekʼs fingers by the tribe of Judah, and the Philistines slaughtered by Shamgar’s oxgoad, thus suggesting images of cattle vio- lently handled by the Israelite judges. In addition, Jephthahʼs daughter is sacrificed, and an Israelite concubine is slaughtered by a Levite. Other elements present in the narratives also evoke the semantic frame of Sacrificing; Abimelech kills his brothers on a single stone, which may represent an altar. He scatters salt over the city of Shechem, a procedure connected to the preparation of sacrifices in the Bible, and Ehud Ben Gerahʼs right thigh symbolizes the thigh of the altar (Lev 1:11). These actual and sym- bolic acts of violence and sacrificing point at a deterioration of moral standards in the period of the Judges, and perhaps implicitly criticize the priestly way of life, in which sacrificing is a significant procedure. Keywords sacrifice – Judges – semantic frames – semantics – body organs – slaughter