Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 11:34

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

34 . his daughter with timbrels and with dances ] For women celebrating a victory cf. Exo 15:20, 1Sa 18:6, Psa 68:11. The last half of the verse is phrased with much beauty, lost in the translation.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

His daughter came out to meet him – The precise phrase of his vow Jdg 11:31. She was his only child, a term of special endearment (see Jer 6:26; Zec 12:10). The same word is used of Isaac Gen 22:2, Gen 22:12, Gen 22:16.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jdg 11:34-40

I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.

Retreat impossible

I. what we have done. I have opened my mouth unto the Lord.

1. We have opened our mouths before the Lord, first, by confessing our faith in Jesus Christ.

2. We have also avowed and declared before the living God that we are Christs disciples and followers.

3. We have opened our mouth to the Lord, next, because as we believe in Jesus Christ, and take Him to be our Master, so we have admitted the Redeemers claims to our persons and services, and have resolved to live for Him alone in our days. We have made a dedication of ourselves to His service, declaring that we are not our own, but bought with a price.

4. We have cast in our lot with His people.

II. What we cannot do. I cannot go back. Having once become Christians, we cannot apostatise from the faith. We cannot go back, even by temporary turnings aside.

1. If we did go back, we should show that we have been altogether false until now.

2. We should incur frightful penalties. To go back is death, shame, eternal ruin.

3. It would be so unreasonable. If you give up the religion of Jesus Christ, what other religion would you have? If you were to give up the pleasures of godliness, what other pleasures would you have? Oh, says one, we could go into the world. Could you? If you are a child of God you are spoiled for the world.

4. I have no inclination to go back. The man who is married to a good wife thinks to himself, If I had to marry again to-morrow morning, she should be the bride, and happy would we be. And so, if we had our choice to make again, we would choose our dear Lord over again, only with much more eagerness and earnestness than we did at first.

5. We have opened our mouth to the Lord, and we cannot go back because we are so happy as we now are. A man does not turn his back upon that which has become his life and his joy; he is bound to it by the bliss which he derives from it. Can the Swiss forget his country when he listens to the home-music which he heard as a child amidst his native hills? Does not the home-sickness come over him so that he longs to be among the Alps again? Does not the Englishman, wherever he wanders, whether by land or sea, feel his heart instinctively turn to the white cliffs of Albion, and does he not say that with all her faults he loves his country still? Who would cease to be that which he loves to be?

6. And then, besides that, we cannot go back from what we have said, for Divine grace impels us onward. There is a secret power more mighty than all other forces called the force of grace, and this has captured us.

III. Something which we must do. If there is a present sacrifice demanded of us, we must make it directly. If there is anything in your business, and you cannot be a Christian if you do it, abjure it at once and for ever. If you are to do this, however, you must ask for more grace. One other admonition to Christian people is this–burn the boats behind you. When the Roman commander meant victory he landed his troops on the coast where he knew there were thousands of enemies, and he burned the boats, so as to cut off all chance of retreat. But how are we to get away if we are beaten? That is just it, said he; we will not be beaten; we will not dream of such a thing. Burn the boats–that is what you Christian people must do. Make no provision for the flesh. Let the separation between you and the world be final and irreversible. Say, Here I go for Christ and His Cross, for the truth of the Bible, for the laws of God, for holiness, for trust in Jesus; and never will I go back, come what may. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

No trifling with God

We have opened our mouth unto the Lord. It is not what we promised the Church, though in becoming members of it we have promised to fulfil the mutual duties of Christians. It was not what we promised to the minister, though, in the very fact of becoming members of a Church of which he is the pastor we have a Christian duty towards him. It was not what we promised one another, though we all owe something to each other. But we have opened our mouth to the Lord. If a man must trifle, let him trifle with men, but not with God. If promises to men may be lightly broken–and they should not be–yet let us not trifle with promises made to God. And if solemn declarations ever can be forgotten–which they should not be–yet not solemn declarations made to God. Beware, oh! beware of anything like levity in entering into covenant with the Most High. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth.

A sacrifice of the world to high principle

Never in any age, or among any people, was there a more ready or thorough sacrifice of the world to high principle and duty than was made by the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. It was made, too, in most trying circumstances. If ever the world seemed bright to her, it must have been when she went forth with timbrels and dances to meet her father. The land of Israel they had so longed for was to be their home–they were to dwell there in peace and honour, high in rank, great in power. It would seem to the daughter of Jephthah as if life were but beginning; the night seemed past and the morning breaking–a morning without cloud. She could not but anticipate a long bright day for her father and herself; and it would be all the more welcome that they had sighed for it so often, and watched for it through a night so dark and so long. It was in these most trying circumstances that the daughter of Jephthah heard from her fathers lips that he had opened his mouth unto the Lord and could not go back. Yet without one word of reproach or complaint, and without hesitation, she said unto him who had vowed that rash vow, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me, etc. Think of her, that child of an outcast–brought up in a heathen land and in a camp–think of her, how pure, how unworldly, how unselfish, how noble in spirit! Think of her patriotism, think of her self-sacrifice, that you may abhor all that is mean and selfish, and worldly and untruthful; and that you may cease to grudge the sacrifices your Father in heaven requires in love and wisdom, and for your own deliverance and safety. (M. Nicholson, D. D.)

Let me alone two months, that I may.., bewail my virginity.–

The wail of Jephthahs daughter

It is this wail of Jephthahs daughter that rises from every generation of this worlds history. What we are all of us called upon to see with our own eyes, and judge with our own hearts, is a similar, or much more grievous waste of all that is good in human nature, of devotedness to country and family, of fine feeling, of the best intellect. Again and again, in our own society, we see the most splendid mental abilities squandered in the quest of what can never be discovered, the truest eloquence and highest moral feeling consecrated to a cause that is not worth lifting a finger to defend. Who has not seen the most precious human feelings wasted, you would say, on worthless people, while they might have fertilised and enriched responsive natures–the noblest devotedness sacrificed to a mere lie, or deception, or mockery? Two months was not too long to weep over the dreadful misguidedness of human actions, and the consequent waste or outward unprofitableness of what is best in human nature. Still, there is a compensating element even here. These companions who sympathised with their friend, and at last decked her as if for her bridal, and gave her into her fathers hands, must no doubt have felt to the close of life that a world in which anything so tragic could happen was a blighted, melancholy world. Still, as they themselves passed through the various womanly duties that fell to them, and felt still the hold that event had taken; as they told the story of the noble maiden to their own children, and found how it moved and controlled them, and how many, through that example, were urged to more self-sacrificing deeds, and to higher thoughts about what is beautiful and good in life; must not these women sometimes have thought that possibly the real children of Jephthahs daughter, those who had truly succeeded to her nature, were more and better than could have been hers, had she lived? If then by family circumstances, or in any other way, we are called upon to sacrifice our own will to what seems a very needless, provoking, and rash plan, what we have to do is to seek to have something of the spirit of Jephthahs daughter, and accept our position without a murmur; knowing that, though we do not see how, any more than she did, this may, and will, by Gods blessing, result in such development of our own character, and such enlargement of our usefulness, as could not otherwise be attained. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)

Did with her according to his vow.–

Modern Jephthahs; or, parental immolations

In Jephthahs vow we see two things–

1. A good feeling overcoming the judgment.

2. A sense of right leading to an enormous crime.

I. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to the true God. But what are many modern parents doing? Why, offering up their children to false gods!

1. The god of idleness. Indolence is ruin.

2. The god of worldliness.

3. The god of ambition.

II. Jepthah sacrificed only the body of his daughter. But parents in these modern times are found immolating the souls of their children; they are made to prostrate their powers, and to yield the Divine sentiments of their nature to idleness, pelf, vanity, fashion.

1. Soul immolation is more gradual.

2. Soul immolation is more mischievous. It is the ruin of the whole man.

III. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter from a noble impulse. No such high feeling prompts parents in these days to sacrifice the souls of their children even to the false and ignominious divinities. They do it either from the spirit of custom, vanity, greed, or ambition. It is a cold-blooded, soulless immolation. If there is any feeling, it is the mere lust of the eye and pride of life.

IV. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter with a terrible regret. But modern parents lay the souls of their children on the altar of worldliness, vanity, and sin, not only without any compunction, but with an utter indifference. They see the souls of their daughters running into grubs, butterflies, swine, and heave no sigh of regret.

V. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter with her full concurrence. Were worldly parents to say to their daughters at the dawn of their intelligent and moral life, We intend to take all the innocency from your young loves–all the sensibility from your young consciences–all the religious poetry from your young natures–and to make you the dolls of fashion, the devotees of a sham life, the victims of a pampered animalism, and thus rifle you of your birthright as immortals–this would be honest; this would bring the question so thoroughly home to the young heart as would, we think, rouse opposition to the fiendish plan. (Homilist.)

The vow performed

To Jephthah and his daughter the vow was sacred, irre- vocable. The deliverance of Israel by so signal and complete a victory left no alternative. It would have been well if they had known God differently; yet better this darkly impressive issue which went to the making of Hebrew faith and strength, than easy, unfruitful evasion of duty. We are shocked by the expenditure of fine feeling and heroism in upholding a false idea of God and obligation to Him; but are we outraged and distressed by the constant effort to escape from God which characterises our age? And have we for our own part come yet to the right idea of self and its relations? Our century, beclouded on many points, is nowhere less informed than in matters of self-sacrifice; Christs doctrine is still uncomprehended. Jephthah was wrong, for God did not need to be bribed to support a man who was bent on doing his duty. And many fail now to perceive that personal development and service of God are in the same line. Life is made for generosity, not mortification; for giving in glad ministry, not for giving up in hideous sacrifice. It is to be devoted to God by the free and holy use of body, mind, and soul in the daily tasks which Providence appoints. The wailing of Jephthahs daughter rings in our ears, bearing with it the anguish of many a soul tormented in the name of that which is most sacred, tormented by mistakes concerning God, the awful theory that He is pleased with human suffering. The relics of that hideous Moloch worship which polluted Jephthahs faith, not even yet purged away by the Spirit of Christ, continue and make religion an anxiety and life a kind of torture. I do not speak of that devotion of thought and time, eloquence and talent to some worthless cause which here and there amazes the student of history and human life–the passionate ardour, for example, with which Flora Macdonald gave herself up to the service of a Stuart. But religion is made to demand sacrifices compared to which the offering of Jephthahs daughter was easy. The imagination of women especially, fired by false representations of the death of Christ, in which there was a clear Divine assertion of self, while it is made to appear as complete suppression of self, bears many on in a hopeless and essentially immoral endeavour. Has God given us minds, feelings, right ambitions, that we may crush them? Does He purify our desires and aspirations by the fire of His own Spirit and still require us to crush them? Are we to find our end in being nothing, absolutely nothing, devoid of will, of purpose, of personality? Is this what Christianity demands? Then our religion is but refined suicide, and the God who desires us to annihilate ourselves is but the Supreme Being of the Buddhists, if those may be said to have a god who regard the suppression of individuality as salvation. Christ was made a sacrifice for us. Yes; He sacrificed everything except His own eternal life and power; He sacrificed ease and favour and immediate success for the manifestation of God. So He achieved the fulness of personal might and royalty. And every sacrifice His religion calls us to make is designed to secure that enlargement and fulness of spiritual individuality in the exercise of which we shall truly serve God and our fellows. Does God require sacrifice? Yes, unquestionably–the sacrifice which every reasonable being must make in order that the mind, the soul may be strong and free, sacrifice of the lower for the higher, sacrifice of pleasure for truth, of comfort for duty, of the life that is earthly and temporal for the life that is heavenly and eternal. And the distinction of Christianity is that it makes this sacrifice supremely reasonable because it reveals the higher life, the heavenly hope, the eternal rewards for which the sacrifice is to be made, that it enables us in making it to feel ourselves united to Christ in a Divine work which is to issue in the redemption of mankind. (R. A. Watson, M. A.)

Jephthahs payment of his vow

Jephthah paid his vow. At a frightful sacrifice he gave up what he had promised. When he gave up his daughter he gave up his all. Did Jephthah open his mouth unto the Lord? and have not you who are parents–have not you dedicated your children to the Lord, and vowed that they shall be His? Not rashly, not hastily, but with due deliberation you did so, and that in a holy ordinance appointed by God for the very purpose. Your vow is registered in heaven; is it to be forgotten on earth? You have opened your mouth unto the Lord; will you go back? God asks your children to be presented to Him not as slain, but living sacrifices. You have vowed; are you paying your vows? Do you pray for your children? Do you teach them to pray? Do you speak to them of God and of Jesus, and lead them in the way of holiness? And when your vows require that you should exercise discipline, and when faithfulness to God requires that you should lay upon your children what for the present is not joyous but grievous, do you shrink from it? To spare your feelings, do you shrink from it? Oh, remember Jephthah when you are thus tempted; and think, if you were under such a vow as he was, how you would act. And you children, think of Jephthahs daughter. Let her spirit take possession of you. Think how she lived above her own personal and selfish interests; think how she honoured her father and honoured God. (M. Nicholson, D. D.)

Did with her according to his vow

If he did not offer her as a burnt-offering, then he did not do with her according to the vow. Moreover, why all this wailing and anguish if, after all, all that was going to happen to her is what happens to thousands who seem to stand in little need of compassion? Then, again, why did she ask for the one favour of a respite of two months to bewail her virginity, if she was to have thirty or forty years with leisure for that purpose? And, lastly, if the mere fact of her remaining unmarried fulfilled even that part of the vow which specified that she was to be the Lords, then what objection can we make to other young women giving themselves to the Lord in the same way? If Jephthahs daughter became a nun, and if this was judged a fulfilment of his vow, if by being a virgin she was somehow more the Lords than by being a married woman, a stronger foundation need not be sought for the establishment of nunneries. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)

Vows which should not be kept

Two men are very foolish or stubborn who fulfil an agreement which they both see to be disadvantageous, and wish to fall away from. No duty whatever compels them to fulfil it, and if they do so they are justly the laughing-stock of their acquaintances. Now, this is precisely the case in which a man finds himself who has vowed to God what turns out to be sinful, for God can never wish him to fulfil a contract which, he now sees, involves sin. A man swears to do a certain thing because he thinks it will be pleasing to God, but if he discovers that, instead of being pleasing, it will be hateful to God, to perform his vow, and do that vowed but hateful thing, is to insult God. By the very discovery of the sinfulness of a vow, the maker of it is absolved from performing it. God shrinks much more than he can do from the perpetration of sin. Both parties fall from the agreement. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)

Typical aspect of Jephthahs vow

See in the tragic tale a foreshadowing of the Cross of our Lord Christ. He took upon Himself our human nature, and having vowed it as the ransom of the guilty world He never hesitated, despite the awful cost, to keep His vow. Gladly did He make voluntary oblation of His own spotless humanity, a vicarious sacrifice to set the whole race free from the spiritual children of Ammon, the followers of the evil one. That it was a costly sacrifice He offered we know full well from the story of Gethsemane; nevertheless He did only cry, Not as I will, but as Thou wilt, then held His peace. Do we think it is true that He bewailed His virginity with His fellows on the mountains before His death? Yet we know that from the human standpoint our Lords ministry of three years and a half was almost fruitless. Multitudes followed Him to see His miracles; they crowded about Him bringing their sick folk to be healed; but they did not become His disciples, and accept heartily His Word. To His human nature this must ever have been a grief and sore trial. Once He said to the Twelve, Will ye also go away? We know that not even His own relations believed on Him. (Arthur Ritchie.)

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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 34. With timbrels and with dances] From this instance we find it was an ancient custom for women to go out to meet returning conquerors with musical instruments, songs, and dances; and that it was continued afterwards is evident from the instance given 1Sa 18:6, where David was met, on his return from the defeat of Goliath and the Philistines, by women from all the cities of Israel, with singing and dancing, and various instruments of music.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

With timbrels and with dances; in consort with other virgins, as the manner was. See Exo 15:20; 1Sa 18.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

34-40. Jephthah came to Mizpeh untohis house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him withtimbrels and with dancesThe return of the victors was hailed,as usual, by the joyous acclaim of a female band (1Sa18:6), the leader of whom was Jephthah’s daughter. The vow wasfull in his mind, and it is evident that it had not been communicatedto anyone, otherwise precautions would doubtless have been taken toplace another object at his door. The shriek, and otheraccompaniments of irrepressible grief, seem to indicate that her lifewas to be forfeited as a sacrifice; the nature of the sacrifice(which was abhorrent to the character of God) and distance from thetabernacle does not suffice to overturn this view, which the languageand whole strain of the narrative plainly support; and although thelapse of two months might be supposed to have afforded time forreflection, and a better sense of his duty, there is but too muchreason to conclude that he was impelled to the fulfilment by thedictates of a pious but unenlightened conscience.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house,…. Where he had uttered his words before the Lord, which had passed between him and the elders of Gilead, and from whence he set out to fight the children of Ammon, and whither he returned after he had got the victory over them,

Jud 11:11 and where it seems he had a house, and his family dwelt; for upon his being fetched from the land of Tab, he brought what family he had with him, and settled them at Mizpeh, while he went on the expedition against the children of Ammon:

and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him, with timbrels, and with dances; accompanied with young women, having timbrels in their hands, and playing upon them, and dancing as they came along; expressing their joy at, and congratulating him upon, the victory he had obtained over the children of Ammon:

and she [was his] only child: and so dear unto him, and upon whom all his hopes and expectations of a posterity from him depended:

besides her he had neither son nor daughter: some read it, “of her” f; that is, she had neither son nor daughter; and so by this vow, be it understood in which way it may be, if fulfilled, she must die without any issue; though the phrase in the Hebrew text is, “of himself” g; he had none, though his wife whom he married might have sons and daughters by an husband she had before him, and so these were brought up in Jephthah’s house as his children; yet they were not begotten by him, they were not of his body, not his own children; he had none but this daughter, which made the trial the more grievous to him; her name, according to Philo, was Seila.

f Targum apud Kimchi. Vid. Masoram in loc. “ex ea”, so some in Vatablus. g “ex se”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius so Noldius, p. 614. No. 1641.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Jephthah’s Vow. – Jdg 11:34, Jdg 11:35. When the victorious hero returned to Mizpeh, his daughter came out to meet him “ with timbrels and in dances,” i.e., at the head of a company of women, who received the conqueror with joyous music and dances (see at Exo 15:20): “ and she was the only one; he had neither son nor daughter beside her.” cannot mean ex se , no other child of his own, though he may have had children that his wives had brought him by other husbands; but it stands, as the great Masora has pointed it, for , “besides her,” the daughter just mentioned-the masculine being used for the feminine as the nearest and more general gender, simply because the idea of “ child ” was floating before the author’s mind. At such a meeting Jephthah was violently agitated. Tearing his clothes (as a sign of his intense agony; see at Lev 10:6), he exclaimed, “ O my daughter! thou hast brought me very low; it is thou who troublest me ” ( lit. thou art among those who trouble me, thou belongest to their class, and indeed in the fullest sense of the word; this is the meaning of the so-called essentiae : see Ges. Lehrgeb. p. 838, and such passages as 2Sa 15:31; Psa 54:6; Psa 55:19, etc.): “ I have opened my mouth to the Lord (i.e., have uttered a vow to Him: compare Psa 66:14 with Num 30:3., Deu 23:23-24), and cannot turn it, ” i.e., revoke it.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Vow Fulfilled, vs. 34-40

Triumphant over his enemies Jephthah returned to Gilead. His only child, a daughter, came out with instruments of music to celebrate the victory. Remembering his vow Jephthah was immediately smitten with remorse. He tore his clothing in sorrow and mournfully remarked to his daughter that she had brought him low by the vow he had made. When the daughter learned what it was all about she acquiesced in his vow, in view of the great victory the Lord had given him. There could be no thought of not fulfilling it, (Num 30:2).

Jephthah’s daughter requested a period of mourning for her virginity before the vow was accomplished and was granted it. She and her several companions then went into the mountains for two months bewailing for her virginity. At the end of the time she returned and Jephthah carried out his vow with regard to his daughter. It became a custom in Israel that the young ,Israelite girls went each year into the mountains and mourned four days for Jephthah’s daughter.

The ages-long question comes again, “Did Jephthah give his daughter as a burnt sacrifice?” Great Bible students have come down on both sides of the question, and it will never be settled unless the Lord settles it in eternity. The personal conviction of this author is that Jephthah did not give his daughter as a burnt sacrifice. The evidence seems very strong for the negative view.

We may begin with the concession that Jephthah made a foolish vow. With the Spirit moving him it seems impossible that he may not have been assured of victory. Let us also concede that Jephthah probably expected a person to that which would come out of his house first to meet him. We cannot think that he would have expected a sacrificial animal to come out of the “doors” of his house. Then arises another question, “Was Jephthah planning to make a human sacrifice?” I cannot believe that he was. The piety and knowledge of Jephthah has been seen, and this would preclude his being an idolatrous sacrificer of human beings.

The Hebrew original which is translated “I will offer it up for a burnt offering,” might have been translated also, “I will offer it up as a burnt offering,” or “like a burnt offering.” That is, wholly given to the Lord, like a burnt offering was given. Also note that it was as an “offering”, not as a “sacrifice.” It would seem that Jephthah’s daughter was given as a lifelong servant of the tabernacle, who could not be married. Therefore, she could never marry and bear children, and for this wailed. That there were such dedicated women serving the tabernacle is clear from 1Sa 2:22.

Consider further that such a sacrifice as would have required the slaughter of Jephthah’s daughter was totally repugnant to the Lord. Such a vow would not have come from the mouth of a godly man, and it must be concluded that Jephthah was a godly man, for he is listed in the roster of the heroes of faith (Heb 11:32). The Lord would have repudiated his oath and Jephthah as well. Jephthah, so diplomatic and wise in handling the Ammonites, was guilty of a foolish mistake in his vow. He felt compelled by the severity of the law to carry it out, but surely not to slay his daughter.

Let it be learned from this chapter 1) unfortunate circumstances of one’s birth does not bar him from acceptable service for the Lord; 2) a good knowledge of God’s word will stand one in good stead in just about any situation; 3) there is no way to reason with the world and its rulers; 4) before making a vow to the Lord the consequences should be thoroughly weighed; 5) careless promises may hinder one for an entire lifetime; 6) it is not to be expected that the Lord will respect an ungodly vow.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(34) Behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances.As Miriam went to meet Moses (Exo. 15:20), and the women to meet Saul and David (1Sa. 18:6-7).

His only child.This is added because the narrator feels the full pathos of the story. (Comp. Gen. 22:2; Jer. 6:26; Luk. 9:38.) The term used (yechidah) is peculiarly tender. The beside her is, literally, beside him; but this is only duo to a Hebrew idiom, which is also found in Zec. 8:10.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

34. His daughter came with timbrels and with dances She had, doubtless, heard from some swift messenger of her father’s victory, and of his approach towards home, and with a band of her young female companions she went forth to celebrate the great triumph over Ammon. Such celebrations of victory were a common custom in Israel. See marginal reference.

Only child This fact is here emphasized to explain the intensity of Jephthah’s agony, which is described in the next verse.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘ And Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels, and with dances, and she was his only child, besides her he had neither son nor daughter.’

Yahweh had heard his prayer and had given him victory. Now He took him at his word. For when Jephthah approached his house (which he had presumably set up since arriving in Mizpah and becoming chief), his daughter led the welcoming procession that came out to greet him. She was full of joy at her father’s success, as were those who followed her, and they danced and waved their timbrels. We are reminded of Exo 15:20 where, after the glorious victory at the Sea of Reeds, Miriam led a similar triumphant procession. But both reader and hearer have been waiting for this moment and know in their hearts the sadness that will result.

The timbrel (or tabret) was a kind of tambourine, held and struck with the hand, used to accompany singing and dancing. It was an instrument of joy and gladness (1Sa 18:6; Isa 5:12).

“She was his only child, besides her he had neither son nor daughter.” The pathos of the situation comes home. She was all that Jephthah had in the world in order to secure offspring to ensure the future of his house. But now he knew that she must be dedicated to Yahweh, remaining a virgin and serving Him in the Tabernacle. The point is not only that she was his only child, but that, in view of that, after so many years of trying, he was unlikely to have any others. He had no doubt made the effort over the years.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jephthah, returning victoriously, is met by his daughter. The fulfillment of his vow

Jdg 11:34-40.

34And Jephthah came to Mizpeh [Mizpah] unto his house, and behold, his daughter came [comes] out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her28 he had neither son nor daughter. 35And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought [thou bringest] me very low, and thou art one of them [the only one]29 that trouble [afflicteth] me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord [Jehovah], and I cannot go back. 36And she said unto him, My father, if [omit: if] thou hast [hast thou] opened thy mouth unto the Lord [Jehovah], [then] do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord [Jehovah] hath taken30 vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children [sons] of Amnion. 37And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for [to] me:31 Let me alone two months, that I may go up and down [may go and descend]32 upon the mountains, and bewail [weep over] my virginity, I and my fellows [companions]. 38And he said, Go. And he sent her away [dismissed her] for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed [wept over] her virginity upon the mountains. 39And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had 40vowed: and she knew no man. And it was [became] a custom in Israel, That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament [praise] the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a [the] year.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg 11:34., for , because the neutral conception child floats before the writers mind, cf. Bertheau. The explanation of by ex se, implying that Jephthah, though he had no other child of his own, had step-children, would, as Bertheau says, be unworthy of mention, were it not suggested in the margin of the E. V.Tr.]

[2 Jdg 11:35. might be rendered: thou art among those who afflict me. But the is probably the so-called essenti (Keil), and simply ascribes the characteristic of a class to the daughter (cf. Ges. Gram. 154, 3, a). Dr. Cassels only is not expressed in the original, but is readily suggested by the contrast, of the sad scene with all the other relations of the moment.Tr.]

[3 Jdg 11:36., lit. done, with evident reference to the same word used just before: do, since Jehovah hath done, cf. the Commentary.Tr.]

[4 Jdg 11:37Dr. Cassel makes this clause refer to the fulfillment of the vow, and renders: Let this thing be done unto me, only let me alone two months, etc. But it clearly introduces the request for a brief period of delay, and is rightly rendered by the E. V., with which Bertheau, Keil, De Wette agree, cf. the Commentary.Tr.]

[5 Jdg 11:37., descend, i. e. from the elevated situation of Mizpah (cf. on Jdg 11:29; Jdg 11:33), to the neighboring lower hills and valleys (Keil). does not mean to wander up and down, a rendering suggested only by the apparent incongruity of descending upon the mountains.Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg 11:34-36. And behold, his daughter comes out to meet him. A great victory had been gained. The national enemy was thoroughly subdued. All Gilead was in a joyful uproar. The return of the victorious hero is a triumphal progress; but when he approaches his home, his vow receives a most painful and unexpected definition. It shall be Gods, and not belong to the victorso runs the vowwhatsoever comes out of my house to meet me. And here is his daughter coming towards him, with tambourines and choral dances, to celebrate her fathers victory! He sees her, and is struck with horror. It is his only child; and his vow tears her from his arms, and makes him childless. Broad as his vow was, he never thought that he could, even if he would, include her in it. This again appears from the circumstance, already adverted to, that the victory and the vow are against Ammon. The heathen promised or sacrificed their first-born sons. According to the Mosaic law, also, the first-born males () belong to God. The same law permitted only male33 victims to be presented as whole burnt-offerings (Lev 1:3). Jephthahs design was to testify that he gave himself up to his God as entirely as the Ammonites imagined themselves to do to their idols. He would have consecrated his first-born son to GodAbrahams child, also, was a boy,but he had none. Hence, he expresses his self-renunciation in the form of a vow, in which he leaves it to God to select whatever should be most precious in his eyes. But of his daughter he did not think. It never even occurred to him that she might come forth to meet him; for that was usually done only by women34 (, Exo 15:20; 1Sa 18:6), not by maidens, who remained within the house; and Jephthahs daughter was yet a , virgin. But this daughter was worthy of her father. The victory was so great, that she breaks through the restraints of custom, and, like Miriam (the same terms are used here as on the occasion of Moses song of victory, Exo 15:20), goes forth to meet the conqueror. As soon as Jephthah sees her, he recognizes the will of God. His vow is accepted; but comprehensive as he consciously made it, it is God who now first interprets it for him in all its fullness. The hero had made the vow in this indefinite form, because he had no only and dearly loved son like Isaac. True, he had a daughter; but he deemed himself debarred from consecrating her, and therefore makes his vow. God now teaches him that he looks not at the sex of the consecrated, but at the heart of the consecrator. However comprehensive Jephthahs vow, without his daughter it would at most have cost him money or property, but his heart would have offered no sacrifice. God teaches him that He delights not in he-goats and oxen;35 that that which pleases Him is a broken heart. His heart breaks within him, when he sees his daughter. She is his darling, his sole ornament, the light of his house, the jewel of his heart; and from her he must separate. He comes home the greatest in Israel; he now feels himself the poorest. But he perceives that this is the real fulfillment of his vow; that God cares not for money or property. The highest offering, which God values, is a chastened heart. Obedience is better than sacrifice. The life is not in the letter: every contract with God must be kept in the spirit. Jephthahs faith revealed itself before the battle. That God was with him, was proved by his victory. But his entire self-surrender to God approves itself still more beautifully after the battle. For he conquers himself. He bowed himself reverently before God, before the decision was given; but his deepest piety manifests itself afterwards. He gives his own people, he gives Ammon and Moab, an instance of the power of an Israelite to perform the vows he has made. He suffers his vow to bind him, but does not attempt to bind it. He interprets it, not according to the letter, but the spirit Lev 27:4-5 prescribes the way in which a woman, concerning whom a vow has been made, is to be redeemed. But his only little daughter, who comes to meet him, he cannot protect. Since God leads her forth towards him, He cannot intend an offering of ten shekels (Lev 27:5). His pious soul does not take, refuge behind external formul; as we read in connection with heathen vows and bad promises.36 He recognizes the fact that, since his only, dearly loved child comes to meet him, God demands of him all the love which he cherishes for her, and all the pain which it will cost him to part with her. And in this conviction, he hesitates not for an instant. He believes like Abraham; and, like him, albeit with a bleeding heart, makes full surrender of what God requires.

The scene of Jephthahs meeting with his daughter has no equal in pathetic power. Her we see advancing with a radiant face, giving voice to her jubilant heart, surrounded by dancing companions, and longing to hear her fathers happy greeting; while he, in the midst of sounding timbrels and triumphant shoutshides his face for agony! What might have been a moment of loudest jubilation, is become one of the deepest sorrow. That on which his imagination had fondly dwelt as the crowning point of his joythe honor with which he could encircle the head of his only child, his virgin-daughter, now the first in all the nationwas instantly transformed into the heaviest woe. O my daughter, deeply hast thou caused me to bow, and thou alone distressest me. He borrows the words perhaps from the panegyrical song in which she celebrates him as having caused the enemy to kneel,37 and to be distressed; and in the extremity of his grief applies them to his child, thus suddenly astonished and struck dumb in the midst of her joy. But, continues the hero, though his heart weeps, I have opened my mouth unto Jehovah, and I cannot go back. I promised God in the spirit of sincerity, and must perform it in the same spirit. And there is not in all antiquity, no, nor yet in Holy Scripture, an instance of a maiden uttering a more beautiful, more profoundly pathetic word, than that which Jephthahs daughter, a heros daughter, a true child of Israel, speaks to her father, even while as yet she knows not the purport of the vow: Hast thou opened thy mouth to Jehovah, then do according to that which proceeded out of thy mouth; for Jehovah also hath done according to thy word, and hath taken vengeance on thy enemies. She neither deprecates nor laments, gives no start, exhibits no despairdoes nothing to make her father waver; but, on the contrary, encourages him, refers him to what God has done, and bids him do as he has promised, not to think, as he might perhaps be tempted to do, of change or modification in her favor. Such is the delicacy and tenderness of the narrative, that the modes of thought and feeling characteristic of this heroic daughter, as such, stand out in full relief; for it is in true womanly style that she says to her father: Since Jehovah hath taken vengeance of thine enemies. The utterance is altogether personal, as her womanly interest was personal. She concentrates the national victory in that of her father; the national enemy in the enemies of her father. God has given him vengeance (); consequently he is bound, personally, to give to God what he has promised.

Jdg 11:37-40. And she said to her father, Let this thing be done to me. The noble maiden may boldly take her place by the side of Isaac, who, according to the narrative in Genesis, was not aware of the sacrifice to which he was destined. She gives herself up to her father, freely and joyfully, to be dealt with as his vow demanded. Heathen antiquity, also, has similar instances of virgins voluntarily offering themselves up for their native land. But comparison will point out the difference between them and the case of Jephthahs daughter, and will help to show that here there can be no thought of a literal sacrifice of life. Pausanias (i. 32) relates the legend, dramatically treated by Euripides, that when the Athenians, who harbored the descendants of Hercules, were at war with the Peloponnesians, an oracle declared the voluntary death of one of those descendants to be necessary in order to secure victory to the Athenians; whereupon Macaria killed herself.When the Thebans were waging war with the Orchomenians, the oracle advised them, that, if they were to conquer, their most distinguished fellow-citizen must sacrifice himself (Paus. ix. 17). Antipnus, who is this most distinguished citizen, despises the oracle; his daughters, on the contrary, honor it, and devote themselves to death.In the war of Erechtheus with Eumolpus, the oracle required of the former the sacrifice of his daughters. They voluntarily killed themselves (Apoll. iii. 15, 11; cf. Heyne on the passage). The same thing is told of Marius by Plutarch. Defeated by the Cimbrians, a divine oracle informed him that he would conquer, if he offered up his daughter, which he did. In all these legends, which might be greatly multiplied, an oracle commands the virgin-sacrifice; in all of them, a vigorous, superstitious belief in the atoning efficacy of pure, blood, such as appears in the German legend of Poor Heinrich, is the underlying motive; in all of them, also, the virgin-sacrifice forms the preliminary condition of victory. But in the history of Jephthah all this is changed. Jephthah makes a vow, but does not think of his daughter. In his case, the vow is a recognition of the fact that victory belongs, not to men, but to God. He makes a vow, although God has not required one. He keeps it, even after victory, although the extent of the sacrifice had not been anticipated. Neither he nor his daughter think of evasions, such, e. g., as Pausanias (iv. 9) speaks of in connection with similar histories in Messenia. And yet, the offering which each of them brings is as trying as death would be, although it cannot actually involve death. For that point is decided, not only by the different statements of the history itself, but especially by the fact that the offering is made to Jehovah, who, even when, as in the case of Abraham, he himself requires a sacrifice, will not suffer obedience to consummate itself in deeds of blood.

Let me alone two months, that I may go and descend upon the mountains, and weep over my virginity, I and my companions. No equivocal intimation is here given of the fate which befell the daughter of Jephthah. She was still in her fathers house, an only daughter, not yet married. Since the vow touches her, and devotes her entirely as an offering to God, she must belong to no one else, consequently not to her father, nor to a husband. She cannot be married, and will never rejoice over children. That is Jephthahs sorrowhis house is withered away (), his family disappears. The highest happiness in Israel, to have children, and thus to see ones name or house continued, will not be his. The dearest of all beings, his only child, is dead to him. The same sorrow, and in accordance with ancient feelings with even greater severity, if that were possible, falls on the virgin daughter herself. An unmarried life was equivalent to death for the maidens of ancient Israel. For the bud withers away. Conjugal love and duty, the blossoms of life, do not appear. Unmarried maidens have no place in the life of the state. Marriage forms the crown of normal family life. The psalm (Psa 78:63) notes it as part of the utmost popular misery, that the, fire (of war) consumes the young men, and the maidens are not celebrated (in marriage songs). Analogous sentiments are frequent in the life of ancient nations. The Brahminism of India looks upon a childless condition as in the highest degree disgraceful. A woman is always in need of manly guidance and protection; be it as daughter from her father, as wife from her husband, or as mother from her sons (cf. Bohlen, Altes Indien, ii. 141 ff.). The laws of Lycurgus concerning marriage, and their penalties against men who did not marry, are familiar. Noteworthy, with reference to the customs of Asia Minor, is an episode in the history of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos. Being urgently warned by his daughter against leaving his island to go to Oroetus, who was on the continent, he became angry, and threatened her, that in case of his safe return home, she should long afterwards continue to be a virgin; to which the dutiful daughter replied, that she would gladly remain virgin much longer still, if only she did not lose her father (Herod. iii. 124).

And weep over my virginity. Not, then, it appears, to mourn her own untimely death. If she was to die, it would have been unnatural to ask for a space of two months to be spent on the mountains in weeping. In that case, why depart with her maiden companions? why not remain at home with her father? A person expecting death and ready for it, would ask no time for lamentation. Such a one dies, and is lamented by others. But Jephthahs daughter is to livea virgin life, to which no honor is paid, from which no blossoms springa life of stillness and seclusion. No nuptial song shall praise, no husband honor, no child grace her. This weeping of virgins,38 because they remain without the praise of wedlock, is characteristic of the nave manners and candid, unaffected purity of ancient life through wide-extended circles. Sophocles, in King dipus (11:1504), makes the father express his fears that age will consume his children, fruitless and unmarried. Electra, in the tragedy which bears her name, says of Chrysothemis (11:962 f.): Well mayest thou lament that thou must grow old so long in unmarried joylessness; just as she is herself commiserated by Orestes (11:1185): Oh, the years of unmarried, anxious life which thou hast lived. In many other instances of virgins who must die or have died, the fact of their dying unmarried is lamented. So, for example, in the beautiful inscription of the Anthology (cf. Herder, Werke, xx. 73): Dear daughter, thou wentest so early, and ere I adorned thy bridal couch, down to the yellow stream under the shades, and in the plaint of Polyxena (Euripides, Hecuba, 11:414): Unmarried, without nuptial song, which nevertheless is my due. The daughter of Jephthah laments not that she must die as a virgin, but with her maiden companions bewails her virginity itself.

From year to year the daughters of Israel go to celebrate in songs (, cf. Jdg 5:11) the daughter of Jephthah. Of this festival39 nothing further is known. A reflection of the feelings it expressed might, however, be found in very ancient analogies. After the maiden, with her companions, has wept on the mountains for two months, over the vain promise of her youth, she returns to her father. The mountains are the abode of a pure and elevated solitude, in which her own chaste heart and those of her companions can open themselves without being overheard. On mountains, also, and in unfrequented pasture-lands and forests, abode the Greek Artemis, the virgin who goes about alone, without companions, like the moon in the sky. It was on account of this her virginity, that Greek maidens celebrated her in many places with song and dance; from which practice she derived the name Artemis Hymnia, especially current in the mountains of Arcadia. The hymns were sung by virgin-choirs (cf. Welcker, Griech. Mythol. i. 585). A similar festival was devoted to Artemis on Mount Taygetus. At Cary, also in Laconia, festive choral dances were yearly executed in her honor (Paus. iii. 10). The virgin goddess was also called Hecaerge (), and Opis or Oupis ( or ). is the song of praise, with which, especially in Delos, and in accordance with peculiar myths, virgins celebrated the chaste Oupis, and brought her, as soon as they married, a lock of their hair (Callim. in Del. 11:292; Paus. i. 43). The same custom was observed at Megara with reference to Iphinoe, who died a virgin (Paus. i. 43). Here also tradition leads us back to Artemis, who is styled protectress of her father. That it is the attributes of chastity and virginity which are thus celebrated, is indicated by the transfer of the custom in honor of a man, in the legend of Hippolytus. Him, Euripide makes Artemis say, shall virgins ever praise in lyric songs; and locks of hair were dedicated to him by Trzenian brides (cf. Euripides, Hippol. 11:1425; Paus. ii. 32).

These observances are a reflection of the narrative concerning Jephthahs daughter, for the reason that they present us with virgin festivals, and with songs to the goddess who did not die, but remained a virgin. In point of fact, the existence of such festivals points to conceptions of life under whose influence woman, contrary to the common rule, lived in a state of virginity. The circumstance, also, that it became a custom in Israel to praise the daughter of Jephthah four days in every year, is itself a proof that the practice did not refer to a maiden who had been put to death. For what would there have been to praise in what was not necessarily dependent on her own free will? As in Artemis, so in her, it is voluntary, self-guarded chastity that is praised, just as Hippolytus also is not celebrated because he died unmarried, but because his life fell a sacrifice to his virtuous continence.

And he did with her according to his vow, and she knew no man. Had she been put to death, that fact must here have been indicated in some way. The narrator would have said, and he presented her as a sacrifice at the altar in Mizpah, or, and she died, having known no man, or some other similar formula. At all events, it does not stand there in the text, as Luther wrote, that she was offered in sacrifice. Much rather does this sentence show the contrary. For its second clause is explanatory of the nature and purport of the vow as it was fulfilled. The end to which it looked was the very thing which it is stated was actually secured, that she should know no man.40 On any other interpretation, the addition of this clause would be inexplicable and questionable. For the fact that she was a virgin in her fathers house, has already been twice brought forward. Moreover, it is surely not an event of very rare occurrence, for young women to die before they are married. And why should the narrator have hesitated to speak of the transaction in such terms as properly and plainly described it? In other cases he does not fail to speak of the most fearful aberrations just as they are. The truth is, the whole narrative derives its mighty charm only from the mysterious, and at that time in Israel very extraordinary fact, that the daughter of the great hero, for whom a life of brilliant happiness opened itself, spent her days in solitude and virginity.41 Death, even unnatural, was nothing uncommon. But a life such as Jephthahs daughter henceforth lived, was at that time unparalleled in Israel, and affords therefore profound instruction, not to be overlooked because issuing from the silence of retirement.

Jephthah performs his vow. That which comes to meet him, even when it proves to be his daughter, he consecrates entirely to God, as a true offering of righteousness (cf. Psa 51:19 : ). He fulfills his vow so fully as to put it beyond his own reach to annul or commute us purport. For he fulfills, as he vowed, voluntarily; no one called on him to make his promise good. The background of the history, without which it cannot be understood, is life in and with God. The providence to which the hero commits the definition of his vow, is that of Jehovah. And if God leads his daughter forth to meet him, and thus in her receives the highest object in the gift of Jephthah, the consecration of which she becomes the subject cannot be of a nature opposed to God.

The event throws a brightness over the life of perpetual virginity which rescues it from ignominy and dishonor. Jephthahs daughter typically exemplifies the truth that a virgin life, if it be consecrated to God, is not such an utter abnormity, as until then it had appeared. In Jephthahs fulfillment of his vow and the consequent unmarried life of his daughter, there is a foreshadowing of those evangelical thoughts by means of which the Apostle liberates woman from the dread of remaining unwedded. Not, however, that we are to look here for the germ or type of the nunnery system;42 but for an example of belonging wholly to God, and of living unmarried, without being burdened or placed in a false position.

That Jephthah through his vow became the occasion of such an example, is already some mitigation of his fate. He has become the father, not of children who inherited his house, but of countless virgins who learned from his daughter to remain free and wholly devoted to God. Jephthah is a truly tragic hero. His youth endures persecution. His strength grows in exile. His victory and fame veil themselves in desolation when his only daughter leaves his home. But everywhere he is great. Whatever befalls, he comes out conqueror at last. God is always the object of his faith. He suffers more than Gideon; but what he does at last does not become a snare to Israel. He also had no successors in his office of wisdom and heroismjust as Gideon, and Samson, and Samuel had none; but it was not his fault that he had them not. His daughter, who resembled a Miriam, gave herself up to God.43

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Jephthahs call was extraordinary: extraordinary also is the manner of his own endurance and his daughters obedience. He parts with her, though deeply afflicted. He yields, though possessed of secular power. His daughter comforts him, though herself the greatest loser. Isaac did not know that he was to be the sacrifice; but Jephthahs daughter knows it, and is content.
1. Thus it appears that a child who loves its father, can also love God. In true devotion of children to parents, there lies a germ of the like relation to God. The daughter of Jephthah loves her father so dearly, that for his sake she calmly submits to that which he has vowed to God. It is written: Honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. To Jephthahs daughter this was fulfilled in the spirit. Her memory has never faded from the books of Israel, nor from the heaven of God, where all sorrows are redeemed.
2. Jephthah might have conquered without a vow; but having vowed before his victory, he fulfills it after the same. Faithfulness to his word is mans greatest wisdom, even though he moisten it with tears. Faithfulness towards a sin is inconceivable; because unfaithfulness lies in the nature of sin. Faithfulness has the promise: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.
3. Jephthahs daughter does not die like one sacrificed to Molech: she dies to the world. She loses a thousand joys that are sweet as love. But no one ever dies to the world and lives to God, without experiencing sorrow. A virgin life is a nameless life, as Jephthahs daughter is nameless in Scripture. But the happiness of this world is not indispensable; and like the solitary flower, the unmarried woman can belong to her God, in whose heaven they neither give nor are given in marriage.

Gerlach: That the Judges whom God raised up, when they thus offered to the Lord even that which they held most dear, did not deliver the estranged and deeply fallen people in a merely outward sense, is shown by this act of believing surrender.

Footnotes:

[28][Jdg 11:34., for , because the neutral conception child floats before the writers mind, cf. Bertheau. The explanation of by ex se, implying that Jephthah, though he had no other child of his own, had step-children, would, as Bertheau says, be unworthy of mention, were it not suggested in the margin of the E. V.Tr.]

[29][Jdg 11:35. might be rendered: thou art among those who afflict me. But the is probably the so-called essenti (Keil), and simply ascribes the characteristic of a class to the daughter (cf. Ges. Gram. 154, 3, a). Dr. Cassels only is not expressed in the original, but is readily suggested by the contrast, of the sad scene with all the other relations of the moment.Tr.]

[30][Jdg 11:36., lit. done, with evident reference to the same word used just before: do, since Jehovah hath done, cf. the Commentary.Tr.]

[31][Jdg 11:37Dr. Cassel makes this clause refer to the fulfillment of the vow, and renders: Let this thing be done unto me, only let me alone two months, etc. But it clearly introduces the request for a brief period of delay, and is rightly rendered by the E. V., with which Bertheau, Keil, De Wette agree, cf. the Commentary.Tr.]

[32][Jdg 11:37., descend, i. e. from the elevated situation of Mizpah (cf. on Jdg 11:29; Jdg 11:33), to the neighboring lower hills and valleys (Keil). does not mean to wander up and down, a rendering suggested only by the apparent incongruity of descending upon the mountains.Tr.]

[33][Dr. Cassel manifestly views Jephthahs vow as sui generisnot belonging to the class of vows treated of in Lev 27:1 ff. and therefore not falling under the provisions there made. Jephthah proposes a whole burnt-offeringspiritual indeed so far as its possible human subjects are concerned, but still bound by the law of whole burnt-offerings. Now, that law requires that offerings shall be of the male gender; whereas ordinary vows might embrace females, Lev 27:4. This view will impart clearness to some of our authors sentences farther on, where he intimates that Jephthah could not redeem his daughter without taking refuge behind external formul, i. e. without interpreting the vow, as if it belonged to a class of vows to which it was not originally meant to belong.Tr.]

[34][Frauen, by which the author evidently means married women. But bears no such restricted sense, cf. Ges. Lex. s. v. Moreover, that maidens were confined to the house is a proposition decidedly negatived by all we know of the position of the female sex among the Hebrews. See Bible Dict., art. Women.Tr.]

[35]Apparently similar thoughts, it is true, are suggested from a heathen point of view, not only by such examples as that of Iphigenia (cf. Cicero, de Officiis, ii. 95), and of Curtius in Rome, but also by that of Anchurus, the son of the Phrygian king Midas, who deemed his own life the most precious sacrifice that could be offered from his fathers possessions to the gods. But in reality, these exhibit only the principles that underlie the practice of human sacrificesprinciples, with which the spirit of the Scriptures, and their spiritual modes of conception, stand strongly in contrast.

[36]Cf. Ngelsbach, Nachhomerische Theologie, p. 244, etc.

[37] , from , to kneel; Hiphil, to cause to kneel, to subdue. She sang perhaps about the enemies whom he had subdued (cf. Jdg 5:27); he sadly applies her words to what she is doing with reference to himself.

[38]Similar customs may be found even in modern times. In a West-Slavic legend a maiden is blamed for having married without having taken leave of maidenhood, which it was customary to do in pathetic and elegiac terms Wenzig, West-Slav. Marchenschatz, pp. 13, 311.

[39]On the statement of Epiphanius, that a festival of the daughter of Jephthah was still celebrated in his time, compare my article in Herzog, p. 476.

[40]Hengstenberg, in his valuable essay on Jephthahs vow (Pentateuch, ii. 105 ff.), seeks to explain the daughters destiny by means of an institute of holy women, into which she perhaps entered. This is not the place to treat that subject, which must be referred to 1Sa 2:22. This much only seems to me to be certain, that by the , Exo 38:8 and 1Sa 2:22, we are not to understand ministering women. It must be remarked, in general, that the fundamental signification of is, not militare, but to be in a multitude. From this the idea of the , the hosts, in heaven and on earth, is derived. derives its meaning host, not from military discipline, but from the assembling of a multitude at one place. The women of the passages alluded to are therefore not ministering women, but persons who collected together at the tabernacle for purposes of prayer, requests, and thanks-giving, like the wives of Elkanah (1 Samuel 1), or to consult with and inquire of the priests. Some, of course, were more instant and continuous in their attendance than others (cf. Kimchi on 1Sa 2:22). At all events, they were women who were either married or widowed. But the history of Jephthahs daughter is related as something extraordinary. Her virginity must remain intact. On this account she is lamented, and a festival is celebrated for her sake. These are uncommon matters, not to be harmonized with the idea of a familiarly known institute. Even among the Talmudists, a female ascetic is a phenomenon unheard of and unapproved (Sota, 22 a).

[41]Nor is it necessary to assume anything more to explain the lament of the daughter or the grief of the bereaved father. Even Roman fathers took it sorrowfully, when their daughters became vestal virgins, notwithstanding the great honor of such a vocation. They were glad to leave such honors to the children of freedmen (Sueton. Aug. 31; Dio Cass. 55, p. 563).

[42]On this point, compare my article in Herzog, p. 474, note.

[43]Poets, unfortunately, have almost without exception considered a sacrificial death more poetical, and have thus done serious injustice to the memory of Jephthah. It was done, among others, by Dante (Paradise, v. 66), who herein followed the Catholic exegesis of his day (cf. my article in Herzog, p. 470). To be sure, Herder did the same. Lord Byron also, in his Hebrew Melodies (see a translation of his poems in Kleins Volkskalender, for 1854, p 47). The names in Hndels Oratorio seem to have been borrowed from the poem of Buchanan, published in Strasburg, 1568. Cf. Gdeke, Pamphilus Gengenbach, p. 672. In Fabers Historischer Lustgarten (Augsburg and Frankfort, 1702), the daughter is called Jephtina.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

Various have been the opinions of pious men, on the subject of Jephthah’s vow, and the event of it. But as the Holy Ghost hath not thought proper to make the subject clear, it should seem that it is the Lord’s pleasure thus to leave it somewhat obscure; perhaps for the greater exercise of pious men’s faith. If, as I before remarked, this vow of Jephthah proceeded from the weakness and littleness of his faith, certainly the Lord’s rebuke was manifested in the punishment which followed. If, as some think, that Jephthah did not offer his daughter in sacrifice; for human sacrifices were not allowed by the law, then perhaps her being devoted to a single state, and sent to the temple service, is in some mea sure explained, in her being allowed two months to bewail her virgin state, by which that great hope all Israel were so tenacious of, in giving birth to Him who as the seed of the woman, was to bruise the serpent’s head, was in her case done away. And then the latter verse, which speaks of the daughters of Israel going yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, seems corresponding with it. But on the other hand, if her father really sacrificed her, which seems the most probable of the two, (though the reluctancy of Jephthah doth not much prefigure the voluntary gift of our heavenly Father, in giving up his only begotten Son for our redemption,) yet the pure and virgin state of the daughter, becomes no unapt representation of the spotless innocency of Jesus, who in the prime of life, offered himself a sacrifice for the salvation of his people. But I presume not to decide the point. Certain it is, that the Holy Ghost hath left the subject in obscurity. And therefore it becomes us to read it with humble waiting for his divine instruction. If the Reader recollects the promise of Jesus concerning the Spirit ‘ s teaching, and places himself under this heavenly teacher, not only in this, but in every other intricate passage, as far as is necessary to be understood, the Holy Ghost will guide him unto all truth. Joh 16:13 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Jdg 11:34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

Ver. 34. He had not of his own, son nor daughter. ] Heb., Of himself. No more had God any son of himself, begotten of his own substance, but only Jesus Christ: whom yet he freely parted with, to be offered up as a slain sacrifice for our redemption. Ama amorem illius, saith Bernard.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

timbrels = drums. See note on Exo 15:20.

beside her. Figure of speech Pleonasm. App-6. The fact is stated in two ways, in order to emphasize it.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Mizpeh: Jdg 11:11, Jdg 10:17

his daughter: Jdg 5:1-31, Exo 15:20, 1Sa 18:6, 1Sa 18:7, Psa 68:25, Psa 148:11, Psa 148:12, Psa 150:4, Jer 31:4, Jer 31:13

beside her: or, he had not of his own either son or daughter, Heb. of himself

neither: Zec 12:10, Luk 7:12, Luk 8:42, Luk 9:38

Reciprocal: Gen 14:17 – to Exo 18:7 – went Jdg 21:21 – dance 2Sa 1:20 – Philistines 2Sa 6:14 – danced Psa 149:3 – in the dance

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

With God’s help, the Ammonites were subdued with a great slaughter. Jephthah’s daughter, who was his only child, was the first to come out of his house to greet him and celebrate his victory with dancing (Compare Exo 15:20 ; 1Sa 18:6-7 ). Ordinarily, a father would rejoice to see his child running out to meet him upon his return home. However, because of the vow he had made to God, Jephthah tore his clothes and cried out.

His daughter considered a vow to the Lord to be so important that she told her father to do to her whatever he had promised. Her one request was that she be allowed to go to the mountains and bewail her virginity because she would never know a man. When the time was up, Jephthah kept his vow. From that day forward, the young women of Israel devoted four days a year to go to the mountains and sing praises for Jephthah’s daughter ( Jdg 11:34-40 ).

Lev 27:28 speaks of devoted offerings to the Lord, which may well explain Hannah’s vow to the Lord in reference to Samuel prior to his conception ( 1Sa 1:8-11 ). However, God despised the human sacrifices the nations made to Molech ( Lev 18:21 ; Lev 20:1-5 ; Deu 12:29-31 ). What then are we to do with a man of faith making a vow that would cause him to do the very thing God hated ( Heb 11:32 )? Keil suggests the vow could have been fulfilled in a spiritual sense with the girl remaining unmarried and her being dedicated to God for the rest of her life. If we cannot accept that idea, it would appear we must think of this as one of the flaws found in a man who otherwise served God well. The importance of keeping one’s promises to God would still be seen in the midst of a terrible sin.

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Jdg 11:34-35. Behold his daughter came out to meet him In concert with other virgins, as the manner was. Alas, my daughter! thou art one of them that trouble me Before this I was troubled by my brethren, and since by the Ammonites, and now most of all, though but occasionally, by thee. I have opened my mouth That is, I have vowed. I cannot go back That is, not retract my vow; I am indispensably obliged to perform it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

11:34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with {n} timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

(n) According to the manner after the victory.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The fate of Jephthah’s daughter 11:34-40

Jdg 11:1-33 record Jephthah’s success. The rest of his story (Jdg 11:34 to Jdg 12:7) relates his failure. The writer likewise recorded Gideon’s success first (Jdg 6:1 to Jdg 8:23) and then his failure (Jdg 8:24 to Jdg 9:57). We shall find a similar pattern when we come to Samson’s story. As with Gideon and Samson, Jephthah’s failure grew out of his success. In all three of these major judges’ cases, failure resulted from ignorance of God’s Word or disregard of it.

God gave us little information about the personal lives of the first three major judges: Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah. He gave us much more personal information about the last three major judges: Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. This selection of material helps us appreciate the deterioration that took place in Israel during the Judges Period as God’s people did what was right in their own eyes (Jdg 21:25).

When Jephthah returned home from battle, his only child, a daughter, greeted him gleefully (Jdg 11:34). The writer’s description of her recalls Miriam’s joy and dancing after the Lord gave the Israelites victory over their Egyptian pursuers (Exo 15:20). But her joy became Jephthah’s sorrow (Jdg 11:35). He falsely blamed her for his sorrow (cf. 1Ki 18:17-18). Really he was responsible for it because of his vow to God (Jdg 11:30-31). "Given my word" is wordplay (Jdg 11:35-36). Jephthah’s name means "he opens," and "given my word" is literally "opened my mouth." Jephthah evidently believed that to go back on his vow to God would involve a denial of his integrity, his very name. He felt he would be denying everything he believed in and stood for.

Jephthah believed he could not get out of his vow (Jdg 11:35). Unfortunately he did not know, or had forgotten, that God had made provision for His people to redeem things they had vowed to give Him. Lev 27:1-8 told the Israelites that if they vowed someone or something to God and then wanted it back they could pay a stated ransom price and buy it back. Had he obeyed the Word of God he could have avoided sacrificing his daughter. With his vow he sought to secure his present, but through it he ended up sacrificing his future. Contrast the outcome of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22). He secured a hope and a future whereas Jephthah lost both. This is yet another example in Judges of self-assertion leading to violence, in this case the abuse of a young woman.

"Although the present story ends with the death of the young girl, her father is the tragic figure, presenting a pathetic picture of stupidity, brutality, ambition, and self-centeredness. Ironically, the one who appeared to have become master of his own fate has become a victim of his own rash word. . . . The man who had tried to manipulate Yahweh to guarantee his ’peace’ (shalom) is doomed by the one whose life he was willing to sacrifice for his own well-being." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., pp. 372-73.]

The submission of Jephthah’s daughter was as commendable as it was tragic. She did not know Leviticus 27 either, but she submitted as an obedient child (cf. Genesis 22). She too believed that the Lord had given her father the victory over the Ammonites (Jdg 11:36). Here is another woman in Judges who provides a good example (cf. Achsah, Deborah, Jael). Yet she ended up weeping because of the folly of her idolatrous, self-assertive father. Note the references to weeping at the beginning (Jdg 2:4), middle (Jdg 11:38), and end (Jdg 20:23; Jdg 20:26; Jdg 21:2) of this book. Of all the characters in Judges, this daughter was more like Jesus than any other in that she embodies God’s experiences. [Note: McCann, p. 88.] Notice also the parallel between the death of Jephthah’s daughter and the death of six million Jews during World War II. Both were holocausts perpetrated in the name of God that the Jews determined never to forget. [Note: Ibid., p. 89.]

There are primarily two possible interpretations of the fate of Jephthah’s daughter as the record of Jephthah fulfilling his vow unfolds in this section of verses. [Note: One of the best discussions of this issue that I have found is by Robert D. Culver, "Did Jephthah Really Slay His Daughter and Offer Her Body as a Burnt Offering?" The Evangelical Christian 55:2 (February 1959):69-70.]

1.    Jephthah offered her as a human sacrifice (burnt offering) to Yahweh. [Note: Advocates of this view include Josephus, 5:7:10; several early church fathers; Davis, p. 147; F. F. Bruce, "Judges," in New Bible Commentary, p. 250; Cundall and Morris, p. 148; Bright, p. 159; Davis and Whitcomb, p. 128; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 2:197; Wolf, p. 456; Lewis, p. 68; J. Gray, p. 319; Block, Judges . . ., pp. 367-68; McCann, p. 84; Howard, p. 117; Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "The Ethical Challenge of Jephthah’s Fulfilled Vow," Bibliotheca Sacra 167:668 (October-December 2010):404-22; et al.]

The more important arguments in favor of this interpretation are as follows.

a.    Jephthah’s desolation when his daughter greeted him points to an ultimate sacrifice (Jdg 11:35).

b.    The fact that she received a two-month reprieve before Jephthah carried out his vowed action suggests that she died (Jdg 11:37-38).

c.    The institution of a four-day annual feast in Israel as a result of her fate argues for her death (Jdg 11:40).

d.    Until the Middle Ages this was the uniform interpretation of the commentators.

e.    The writer said the Israelites worshipped the gods of Ammon and Moab (Jdg 10:10), and the leaders of these nations sacrificed children (2Ki 3:27).

The rebuttals to these points are these.

a.    Jephthah naturally would have been very sorry that his daughter met him rather than some animal. He had only one heir, and she could not now perpetuate his family in Israel.

b.    The two-month reprieve would have been appropriate if she left his home from then on for a life of perpetual service at the tabernacle. She mourned because she would live as a virgin, not die a virgin.

c.    The Israelites established the feast because she so admirably submitted to the will of her father and God. Moreover she was the daughter of a famous judge in Israel.

d.    The antiquity of an interpretation does not guarantee its accuracy.

2.    Jephthah dedicated her to the service of Yahweh at the tabernacle where she ministered from then on as a virgin. [Note: Advocates of this view include Keil and Delitzsch, p. 338; Feinberg, p. 6; Wood, Distressing Days . . ., p. 288-95; et al.]

Some of the stronger arguments in favor of this view are these.

a.    The text allows this possibility. The words and expressions used do not require a human sacrifice.

b.    God specifically forbade human sacrifice in the Mosaic Law and called it an abomination in His sight (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2-5; Deu 12:31; Deu 18:10). That a judge in Israel such as Jephthah would have practiced it is unthinkable.

c.    There is no record that the Israelites made human sacrifices until the godless kings Ahab and Manasseh introduced them many years later.

d.    The writer did not picture Jephthah as a rash person who would impetuously or desperately promise God such a sacrifice (cf. Jdg 11:9-27).

The responses to these arguments that critics of this view have made are as follows.

a.    Human sacrifice is the normal implication of the terms used in the passage.

b.    Jephthah violated the Mosaic Law, as did other of Israel’s judges (e.g., Gideon’s multiple marriages, Samson’s violations of his Nazirite vow, etc.).

c.    This could be the first human sacrifice the Israelites offered that God recorded in Scripture. The king of Moab later offered his crown prince as a human sacrifice to assure victory in battle, so this pagan practice may have influenced Jephthah (cf. 2Ki 3:27).

d.    Jephthah’s background suggests that he was a rash person. He might have resorted to such an extreme measure to secure victory and acceptance by the Gileadites (cf. Jdg 11:1-3).

I believe Jephthah offered his daughter as a human sacrifice. What Jephthah did to his daughter may have been acceptable to Molech, but it was not to Yahweh. A few years later Saul also made a foolish vow and almost slew his son Jonathan (1Sa 14:39; 1Sa 14:44-45). The only thing that prevented that tragedy was the intervention of the Israelites. Ignorance or disregard of God’s Word is not only unfortunate, but it is also dangerous.

"Long neglect of the Mosaic law had left the Israelites with many mistaken notions about God’s will." [Note: Wolf, p. 381.]

Jephthah may have known God’s will but simply chose to disregard it.

"If God’s mind can change for the sake of graciously allowing people to live, why cannot Jephthah change his mind [about slaying his daughter]? At other places in the Old Testament, God even breaks the Torah in order to allow the people to live-for instance, inviting an adulterous people to return instead of killing them (see Jer 3:11-14), and allowing Israel, the disobedient child, to be spared rather than stoned (see Hos 11:1-9). In Jephthah’s case, Jephthah could actually have appealed to the Torah as support for not sacrificing his child. But he does not. Where are the imaginative diplomatic skills of Jdg 11:12-28, where Jephthah shows detailed awareness of Numbers 21, a Torah narrative?" [Note: McCann, pp. 84-85.]

Why do the fortunes of women decline as the Book of Judges proceeds, beginning here? Following the execution of Jephthah’s daughter, things got worse for women in Israel. A Levite’s concubine was raped, killed, and dismembered (ch. 19), 400 young virgins from Jabesh-gilead were abducted (Jdg 21:12), as were the young women of Shiloh (Jdg 21:21). One of the primary indications of moral confusion and social chaos in any society is the abuse of women. The writer revealed the confusion and chaos in Israel by recording these instances of the abuse of women.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)