One solution regularly offered to the problem of historically implausible numbers in Joshua – 2 Kings is that the term אלף , normally translated 'thousand', actually refers to a 'contingent of armed men'. This article argues that 'contingent' is not a plausible translation for אלף in the Deuteronomistic History. The argument focuses on grammatical evidence, as there are several unique ways that the term אלף behaves grammatically like a numeral when it is used in conjunction with other numerals, and comparative evidence, as other ANE battle narratives do not enumerate numbers of contingents when reporting numbers of troops and casualties.

In Judges 11 Jephthah is an anti-hero, his rash vow and its implementation being for the Book of Judges symptoms of the defects of pre-monarchical Israel. The daughter is probably sacrificed; the alternative view, that she is consigned to perpetual virginity, has insufficient support in the text. The story speaks still to present-day readers, challenging them not to make ill-considered judgments that may have disastrous consequences; inviting them too to detect a divine purpose working through human beings in their failings as well as their strengths.

Le psaume 29, et plus particulierement les versets 3-9, est-il une adaptation d'un hymne phenicien a Baal? Ceci pose le probleme du syncretisme et du monotheisme dans l'Ancien Testament. L'A. affirme que s'il n'y a pas adaptation directe d'un hymne phenicien dans le psaume 29, il existe neanmoins des elements d'identification de YHWH a Baal ou plutot de comparaison. Il existe dans le texte un motif qui joue sur le parallelisme entre Baal et YHWH comme seigneurs du desert