SUMMARY
Here and elsewhere, the role of women at the entrance to the tent of meeting is mentioned in passing, assuming that hearers/readers know about the women officiants.
ANALYSIS
Here in 1 SamuelThe judge who anointed the first two kings of Israel. More, the author assumes that the hearer/reader knows that women served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. In the history of biblical reception, interpreters have cast aspersions on the women, suggesting that they might be cultic prostitutes or devotees performing another kind of ritual that later prophets would critique. That is not in the text here. The Hebrew word rendered as “serving” here (and in Exodus 38:8, where the women make a donation that enables the cleansing of the priests) is primarily military in nature – that is, the women may be serving as guards at the place of sacrificial exchange – the entrance to the tent of meeting.
Women at the central Israelite cultic site are crucial in a number of stories, including Huldah telling JosiahJudean king noted for his reforms of Israel's worship in the time of Jeremiah. More what to do with the “Book of the Law” (2 Kings 22:12-20), and AnnaAnna appears in Luke 2:36-38, as Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem eight days after his birth. More prophesying over JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More as an infant (LukeThe "beloved physician" and companion of Paul. More 2:36-38). Sadly, in 1 Samuel, their abuse is mentioned to show how completely wicked Hophni and Phinehas have become.
