Judges 11:34-40

Judges 11:34-40

[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.  [35] And it came to pass, when he saw  her, that he rent  his clothes,  and said,  Alas,  my daughter!  me very  and thou art one of them that trouble  me: for I have opened  my mouth  unto the LORD,  and I cannot  go back.  [36] And she said  unto him, My father,  if thou hast opened  thy mouth  unto the LORD,  do  to me according to that which  hath proceeded  out of thy mouth;  forasmuch  as the LORD  hath taken  vengeance  for thee of thine enemies,  even of the children  of Ammon.  [37] And she said  unto her father,  Let this thing  be done  for me: let me alone  two  months,  and down  upon the mountains,  and bewail  my virginity,  [38] And he said,  And he sent her away  for two  months:  with her companions,  and bewailed  her virginity  upon the mountains.  [39] And 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 vowed:  and she knew  no man.  And it was a custom  in Israel,  [40] That the daughters  of Israel  yearly  to lament  the daughter  of Jephthah  the Gileadite  four  days  in a year. 

What does Judges 11:34-40 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Judges 11:1-33 record Jephthah"s success. The rest of his story ( Judges 11:34 to Judges 12:7) relates his failure. The writer likewise recorded Gideon"s success first ( Judges 11:35-3620 to Judges 8:23) and then his failure ( Judges 8:24 to Judges 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 ( Judges 21:25).
When Jephthah returned home from battle, his only child, a daughter, greeted him gleefully ( Judges 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 ( Exodus 15:20). But her joy became Jephthah"s sorrow ( Judges 11:35). He falsely blamed her for his sorrow (cf. 1 Kings 18:17-18). Really he was responsible for it because of his vow to God ( Judges 11:30-31). "Given my word" is wordplay ( 1714017950_5). 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 ( Judges 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. Leviticus 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." [1]
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 ( Judges 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 ( Judges 2:4), middle ( Judges 11:38), and end ( Judges 20:23; Judges 20:26; Judges 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. [2] 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. [3]
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. [4]
1.Jephthah offered her as a human sacrifice (burnt offering) to Yahweh. [5]
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 ( Judges 11:35).b.The fact that she received a two-month reprieve before Jephthah carried out his vowed action suggests that she died ( Judges 11:37-38).c.The institution of a four-day annual feast in Israel as a result of her fate argues for her death ( Judges 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 ( Judges 10:10), and the leaders of these nations sacrificed children ( 2 Kings 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. [6]
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 ( Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:31; Deuteronomy 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. Judges 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. 2 Kings 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. Judges 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 ( 1 Samuel 14:39; 1 Samuel 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." [7]
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 [8]? 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 Jeremiah 3:11-14), and allowing Israel, the disobedient child, to be spared rather than stoned (see Hosea 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 Judges 11:12-28, where Jephthah shows detailed awareness of Numbers 21 , a Torah narrative?" [9]
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 (ch19), 400 young virgins from Jabesh-gilead were abducted ( Judges 21:12), as were the young women of Shiloh ( Judges 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.