A stimulating collection of studies by leading feminist scholars offering radical readings of the Old Testament books of Samuel and Kings. Although gender ideology may have been only a 'side issue' for the writers of these texts, the articles in this collection show that it is definitely a constituent of the general ideological framework of this section of Israel's historiography, and they explore the texts for women's lives, female voices, gendered types, and the presence of women in the written history. As Athalya Brenner states in her introduction to the volume, in looking at the presentation of women and femaleness in Samuel and Kings we 'encounter chiefly relational images': women are seen as daughters, mothers, queen mothers, and in their relations to kings and prophets.

Abbreviations/ Athalya Brenner/ Introduction/ Part I/ Women as Vehicles for Historiography: Liminality and Anonymity/ Karla G. Shargent/ Living on the Edge: The Liminality of Daughters in Genesis to 2 Samuel/ Adele Reinhartz/ Anonymous Women and the Collapse of the Monarchy: A Study in Narrative Technique/ A Model Mother: Hannah/ Yairah Amit/ 'Am I Not More Devoted To You Than Ten Sons?' (1 Samuel 1.8): Male and Female Interpretations/ Lillian R. Klein/ Hannah: Marginalized Victim and Social Redeemer/ Carol Meyers/ Hannah and her Sacrifice: Reclaiming Female Agency/ Part III/ Women and Monarchs/ Alice Bach/ The Pleasure of her Text/ Schulamit Valler/ King David and 'his' Women: Biblical Stories and Talmudic Discussions/ Carole R. Fontaine/ The Bearing of Wisdom on the Shape of 2 Samuel 11-12 and 1 Kings 3/ Carole R. Fontaine/ A Response to 'The bearing of Wisdom'/ Part IV/ Queen Mothers/ Zafrira Ben- Barak/ The Status and Right of the gebîrâ/ Ktizah Spanier/ The Queen Mother in the Judaen Royal Court: Maacah A Case Study/ Tina Pippin/ Jezebel Re-vamped/ Part V/ Female, Femaleness/ Prophets, Prophecy/ Jan Tarlin/ Toward a 'Female' Reading of the Elijah Cycle: Ideology and Gender in the Interpretation of 1 Kings 17-19, 21 and 2 Kings 1-2.18/ Fokkelien Dijk-Hemmes/ The Great Women of Shunem and the Man of God: A Duel Interpretation of 2 Kings 4.8-37/ Diana Edelmann/ Huldah the Prophet- of Yahweh or Asherah?/ Epilogue/ Women in Later Historiography and History/ Tamara C. Eskenazi/ Out for the Shadows: Biblical Women in the Post-Exilic Era/ Bibliography