ABSTRACT
Vows were an important aspect of ancient Israelite personal piety and family religion. An individual could attempt to persuade her or his god(s) to provide some material benefit via the promise of a gift should the god(s) be moved to act. Given the personal nature of vows, it should come as no surprise that children, the most personal of objects, often appear in conjunction with vows. A survey of textual evidence from both Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible reveals that a person could attempt to obtain a child via a vow. In such cases one would promise some valuable item to the god(s) after the birth of the desired child. In other cases, a child could be the item promised, in exchange for some other material benefit. One of the most striking examples of this phenomenon is the so-called mulk-sacrifice, attested both in Punic inscriptions from the central Mediterranean and in the Hebrew Bible. These sacrifices, although repeatedly condemned in the Hebrew Bible, involved promising to sacrifice one’s child should the god(s) provide a requested benefit. Thus, children could serve as either the item desired or the item offered in a vow, and in the latter case fulfilling the vow could involve the sacrifice of the child.
