I read Judges 11:29-33 and wonder what is going on. Jephthah makes a vow to God to “offer” whatever comes through the door as a burnt offering. V. 31. It couldn’t be an animal because they usually didn’t enter people’s houses through the doors so I don’t think he meant to sacrifice a person coming through the door. I don’t think he meant a human sacrifice because his daughter had no relations with man after he “did to her according to the vow.” V. 39. What are your thoughts? David Peery.
Jephthah’s vow has been a source of controversy throughout modern history. Essentially, two contrasting views argue for either Jephthah literally offering his daughter as a blood-spilt burnt altar offering, or that she was dedicated to lifelong, celibate service to God.
God raised Jephthah to be a Judge in Israel to liberate the Israelites from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judges 11:29). Further, God is directly involved as the one with whom the vow was made and at least indirectly through providence in the turn of events that led to the application of the vow to Jephthah’s daughter. Therefore, whatever conclusion to which one arrives also affects one’s view of God, too.
According to Keil and Delitzsch, the verbal construction of the vow anticipated that to whomever the vow would eventually be applied was a human and not an animal. Also, Jephthah apparently determined to allow chance or providence to select the immediate application upon his return home.
Jephthah’s daughter embraced the consequences of her father’s vow, only requesting a stay of its fulfillment for two months for the purpose of mourning her virginity. Upon her return home after the two months, the vow was fulfilled. The key to understanding how the vow was fulfilled is the statement: “…she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man…” (Judges 11:39). This Scripture reveals: (1) the vow Jephthah vowed was carried out, and (2) the fulfillment involved his daughter’s perpetual virginity. “To mourn one’s virginity does not mean to mourn because one has to die a virgin, but because one has to live and remain a virgin.” (“Judges 11:39-40,” Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.) Hence, it appears that the fulfillment of the vow was the daughter’s spiritual sacrifice of constant dedication to the service of God, rather than a bloody sacrifice of burnt offering. Christians know the concept of the spiritual sacrifice of themselves, too (Romans 12:1-2).
Further, note that the Law provided redemption of the firstborn children from sacrifice and redemption of persons affected by vows (Num 18:15-16; Lev 27:1 ff). It was not, therefore, unusual to use phraseology as Jephthah did like “I will offer it up for a burnt offering” referring to people, when the actual execution of the vow anticipated some sort of redemption. It was as though or in the place of a burnt offering, when applied to persons, that redemption fulfilled the need or vow for a sacrifice.
Keil and Delitzsch contend that the proper rendition of “lament” in verse 40 of the KJV is instead, “praise.” In this vein, the American Standard Version translates verse 40, “…the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.” Adam Clarke supposes the word should be translated “comfort” and that maidens comforted Jephthah’s daughter annually. Dedication to God that removed persons from their families for special service to God occurred under Judaism (e.g., little boy Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:11; Anna, Luke 2:36-37).
The dreadful thought that Jephthah may have actually slain or had an Israelite priest slay his daughter to offer her as a bloody sacrifice is at once repulsive, rather characteristic of the Godless neighboring nations of Israel and strictly prohibited by God to the Israelites. “Yet not only were human sacrifices prohibited in the law under pain of death as an abomination in the sight of Jehovah (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut 12:31; 18:10), but they were never heard of among the Israelites in the early times, and were only transplanted to Jerusalem by the godless kings Ahaz and Manasseh.” (Ibid.)
Albert Barnes, Wycliffe and Matthew Henry in their commentaries, as well as the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, New Bible Dictionary, Josephus, and A History of Israel suppose that Jephthah erred in making the vow and actually slaying his daughter. The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary cites Jephthah for a rash vow but supposes that instead of human sacrifice, his daughter remained a perpetual virgin in special service to God.
I must concur with the summary regarding Jephthah’s vow made by Easton’s Bible Dictionary, “We are constrained, however, by a consideration of Jephthah’s known piety as a true worshipper of Jehovah, his evident acquaintance with the law of Moses, to which such sacrifices were abhorrent (Lev. 18:21; 20:25; Deut. 12:31), and the place he holds in the roll of the heroes of the faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:32), to conclude that she was only doomed to a life of perpetual celibacy.” [Easton, M. G., M. A. D. D., Easton’s Bible Dictionary, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1996]
