| Sumario: | 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-Bezek's 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, Jephthah's 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 Gerah's 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.
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