and
to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the
people of Ammon were subdued before the children of
Israel.
34 When Jephthah came to his house at
Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with
timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides
her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw
her, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter!
You have brought me very low! You are among those who
trouble me! For I have given my word to the LORD, and I
cannot go back on it."
36 So she said to him, "My father, if
you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to
what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has
avenged you of your enemies, the people of
Ammon."
37 Then she said to her father, "Let
this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that
I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my
virginity, my friends and I."
38 So he said, "Go." And he sent her
away for two months; and she went with her friends, and
bewailed her virginity on the mountains.
39 And it was so at the end of two
months that she returned to her father, and he carried out
his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it
became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel
went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah
the Gileadite. (Jud. 11:29-40)
THOUGHTS:
For the Spiritual Meaning:
1) "And" could be translated as "or" in verse 31 making it
read: "or I will offer it up as a burnt
offering." This makes Jephthah's vow distinguish
between what comes out to meet him and act accordingly.
However, it has escaped the scholarship of all the sound
versions that I have access too to translate it as such. By
admission, those who contend that "and" could be translated as
"or" seemingly concur that the thrust of "and" necessitates
the literal meaning! Why else want and translated to another
word?
2) Sacrificing children was forbidden (Lev. 20:2-3). Yet
that passage is dealing with offering children to an
idol: Molech. If such was 100% inherently sinful, then
God asked Abraham to do something 100% inherently sinful (Gen.
22)! He was also doing something inherently sinful in
offering up His own child. If not, why not?
3) Daughter bewailed her virginity, and not her death (Jud.
11:37, 38). I submit Unger's thoughts on this part: "It [her
virginity, sjw] is probably mentioned to give greater force to
the sacrifice, as it would leave him without descendants,
which in the East was considered a special misfortune"
(Unger's Bible Dictionary, p. 667).
4) She was to work in tabernacle service. Yet, such work
did not require a woman to be a virgin as in the case with
Anna.
"Now there was one, Anna, a
prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven
years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of
about eighty–four years, who did not depart from the temple,
but served God with fastings and prayers night and day" (Lk.
2:36, 37, NKJV)
For the Literal Meaning
1) Jephthah's vow was to offer a burnt offering (not
tabernacle service) see verse 31. Further it is stated that he
fulfilled his vow (v. 39).
2) His extreme sorrow to see his daughter is best explained
in a burnt offering (v. 35)
3) His lamentation over the daughter (v. 40). It seems odd
to suggest that the women of Israel would lament 4 days a year
for the women who served at the tabernacle or temple.
4) She was his "only child" (v. 34), which parallels
Abraham with Isaac (Gen. 22:12) and of the Father and Jesus
(Jn. 3:16). Further, "deliverance" is central in both
(cf. Jud. 11:30).
Each person needs to read and decide for himself. That
Jephthah sacrficed his daughter is the preferable view is seen
from the evidence above. It seems that the spiritual
sacrifice of his daughter was invented because men find
the literal view hard to accept.
Cordially,
Steven J. Wallace
