Drawing on an expanded corpus of female names, this latest scholarly contribution by Phyllis Bird offers a fresh perspective on women –and men– in ancient Israel. Finely attuned to gender as well as class, this study displays excellent textual intuition and sober philological judgment. An important contribution to the study of ancient Israelite society.

Mark S. Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA

Phyllis Bird's meticulous analysis of female and male personal names in the Hebrew Bible, Epigraphic Hebrew, and Elephantine marks a major advance. Moving well beyond the work of Noth, Stamm, Albertz, and others, she discovers both gender differences by categories and chronological developments in usage. From these results she proposes constructive and careful suggestions for the place of women in Israelite communities over time.

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Professor of Old Testament Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA