because a common feature of Old Testament narrative texts is that although they describe what happened, they very seldom offer readers any evaluative comment. So, although the narrators do have a view on what is approved or not, the poetics of narration within the Old Testament tends to discourage any direct comment so that readers may know ‘the point’ of the story.25 A moment’s reflection on the Jephthah story in Judges (Judg. 10:6–12:7) quickly illustrates this point. The issue that troubles most