The Curious Case of Jephthah's Daughter
What exactly did Jephthah do to his daughter? The
usual—but by no means universal—view is that he literally sacrificed her (i.e.,
slit her throat and burned her on an
altar). This seems to be the implication of the text.
Jephthah
made a vow to the Lord and said,
“Whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in
peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s,
and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
Then
Jephthah came to his home in Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet
him with tambourines and with dances… And [he] did with her according to his
vow that he had made (Judges 11:31, 34, 39)
If he did indeed put her to death and burn her on
the altar, then the episode is a tragic illustration of the morally chaotic
period of the Judges. But I don’t think this is what Jephthah did. In the first
place, in a variety of ways Jephthah showed himself to be a faithful man. He
committed the outcome of his campaign against the Ammonites to the Lord’s
providence (v. 10). He entered into a solemn league and covenant with the
elders of Gilead before the Lord at Mizpah (v. 11). He demonstrated a knowledge
of the Scriptures and of the history of Israel, and attributed Israel’s successful
conquest of Canaan to the will and power of God (vv. 14-27). And finally, just
prior to making his vow, the Spirit of the Lord was said to have come upon him.
He could not have but known that human sacrifice was unlawful, and surely it
was repugnant to his character as a man of God.
There are several things that are crucial for us
to keep in mind as we seek to make sense of this. First, we must understand the
nature of a vow. A vow is a promise to render a service, give a gift, or devote
something of value to God. This promise might be made from any one of a number
of different motives, e.g., devotion,
thanksgiving, supplication, etc. Jacob made a vow as a means to supplicate God
for a safe journey to and from a distant land (Gen. 28:20-22). It was perhaps
from similar motives that Paul made what appears to have been a Nazarite vow
while on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:18). He may well have made this
vow in response to the Lord’s promise to protect him while he was in Corinth
(see vv. 9-11). Or perhaps the vision came in response to the vow. In either
case, upon his departure, he acknowledged that the Lord had kept his promise
and so completed his vow, which included cutting his hair according to the
ordinance (see Num. 6:5, 18).[1]
David invoked divine protection from his enemies by making vows to the Lord (Ps.
61). After suffering a defeat at the hands of the king of Arad in the southern
region of Canaan, the people of Israel “vowed a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If you will indeed give
this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction’”
(Num. 21:2). Jonah cried out to God in his distress and made vows the Lord in
the belly of the great fish (Jon. 2:9).
Making vows was not a required act of worship, but if a vow was made, it was incumbent to
pay it in a timely fashion (Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21-23; Eccles. 5:4-5). Isaiah
prophesied of a day when even the traditional enemies of Israel would express
their devotion to God and “make vows to the Lord
and perform them” (Isa. 19:21).
Leviticus 27 gives the most extensive treatment on
the subject of making vows, though it is by no means exhaustive. The passage gives
instructions concerning the people of Israel making vows with regard to
dedicating persons, animals, houses, and lands to the Lord. The dedication of
persons is of particular interest to us, since this is what Jephthah did with
respect to his daughter.
The dedication of persons needs to be set in a
larger context. It was required by law that the firstborn male of both man and
animal was to be dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 13:1-2, 11-13). Each firstborn,
however, is treated differently depending upon whether it is a human being or
an animal, and if an animal, whether it is clean or unclean. If the firstborn
male was a clean animal, it was to be offered on the altar. If it was an
unclean animal, it was to be redeemed with a clean animal (i.e., a clean animal
was to be sacrificed in its place). If it was not redeemed, its neck was to be
broken (i.e., killed, but not sacrificed and offered on the altar). If it was a
human being, he was to be redeemed (saved from death). The book of Numbers goes
into more detail (Num. 18:8-18). The point here is that the dedication of
persons was commonplace with the offering of the firstborn, but it was
understood that human beings were not actually to be offered on the altar. They
were to be redeemed.
In Jephthah’s case, he vowed to give “whatever” or
“whoever” first came out of the doors of his house upon his safe return from a
victorious effort against the Ammonites. It happened to be his daughter. He was
obliged by his vow to dedicate her to the Lord. The specific form of the vow
(“I will offer it up for a burnt offering”), was not literally applicable to
human beings, but in the case of a human being would involve an irredeemable
offering of the person in question to the Lord’s service.
The closest analogy we have to this is the example
of Hannah, who vowed to give her son to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:1-2, 10-11). Admittedly,
she does not use the same language as Jephthah—“I will offer him up for a burnt
offering”—but she expresses the idea of total consecration to the Lord which is
the very idea the burnt offering is intended to convey. She says, “I will give
him to the Lord all the days of
his life.” Recall Paul’s statement in Romans 12:1, which has all of this Old Testament
history behind it: “I appeal to you
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”
I believe that it was Jephthah’s intent to
dedicate whatever passed through the
doors of his house to meet him upon his safe return, and give it to the Lord in
whatever way it was appropriate to do so:
if it was a clean animal, to literally offer it as a burnt offering upon
the altar; if it was an unclean animal, to either break its neck or substitute
a clean animal in its place; and if it was a human being, to dedicate him (or
her) to the Lord’s service forever. He perhaps expected that if it were a human
being, it would be one of his servants. But as it turned out, it was his
daughter, whom he presumably dedicated to serve the Lord at the entrance to the
tent of meeting, joining a group of other women so serving (see Ex. 38:8; 1
Sam. 2:22).
This seems to be the best way to account for the response
of Jephthah’s daughter. She doesn’t bewail the loss of her life; she bewails her virginity.
She was prevented by her father’s vow from marrying and having children. This
was a cause of grief for Jephthah, too, because she was his only child, and thus
his only heir.
[1] The
law stipulates that this was to be done “at the entrance of the tent of
meeting” (Num. 6:18). Paul was, however, living outside the land of Israel at
the time, and far from the temple where this might be done. There was a
difference of opinion between the Schools of Shammai and Hillel about how the
vow might be fulfilled in such a case. “If a man vowed to be a Nazirite for a
longer spell [than the usual thirty days, dje] and he fulfilled his
Nazirite-vow and afterward came to the Land [of Israel], the School of Shammai
say: He need continue a Nazirite [only
for] thirty days [more]. And the School of Hillel say: He must again fulfil his
vow as from the beginning” (Nazir 3.
6). Presumably, on his next visit to Jerusalem Paul offered his shorn hair and
the other items requisite to fulfilling the vow (a male lamb a year old for a
burnt offering, a ewe lamb a year old for a sin offering, a ram as a peace
offering, a basket of unleavened bread, and a drink offering for each animal,
Num. 6:14-15). Compare Acts 21:23-26.
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