So she said to him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD; do to me as you have said, since the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon." She said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my companions." Then he said, "Go." So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity. At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
My father, you have given your word: Jephthah's daughter makes it clear she understood her father had no choice in the matter. She tells him to do what he has vowed he would do.
At the end of two months she returned to her father: In verse 39, we are told after a two month reprieve, her father followed through with his promise to God.
Now, of all the issues these few passages bring up, the one which causes the most controversy is whether or not Jephthah actually made a human sacrifice of his daughter or whether he did something else with her which did not involve her death. We will explore this topic, but first, we must set the stage. If we are to do more than just use our own sensibilities, opinions and various denominational doctrines as the answer to this dilemma.
Jephthah's vow reviewed in more detail
Let us start at the very beginning. In verse 31, the usual English rendering of the original Hebrew is that Jephthah vows to God that "Whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me...will be offered to the LORD as a burnt offering."
The first keyword of this sentence is "whatever". "Whatever" is a very poor translation which reflects a predisposition of the translator to what he thinks was in Jephthah's mind when he made the vow. The Hebrew word is asher, and it does NOT mean "whatever" or "whatsoever". It means who. This is very important because by slightly altering the meaning of the word asher to mean "whatever", it means ANYTHING which comes out of the door first upon Jephthah's triumphal return home will be sacrificed. It could be an animal or a human. But if we correctly translate asher as whoever, then it points toward the sacrifice as being a human. The only question would be which human. The word "what" refers to an "it" and the word "who" refers to a person. We do not call people "it"; we do not call animals "who".
It has become a standard Christian apologetic to explain that when Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, what he innocently had in mind is some kind of animal would be the first out the door to greet him. Thus, he would use that animal as a sacrifice to God. But, in addition to the fact that using the term asher refers to a person and not an animal, there is another problem, animals are clean or unclean.
Clean and unclean animals mingled and lived together in and around Hebrew households. Dogs and chickens lived side by side with sheep, goats and cattle. What is more likely when a master returns home: a dog would run to greet him or a cow? (Remember when presenting a sacrifice to God, ONLY CLEAN animals could be sacrificed. (For more details about clean versus unclean animals, please read Numbers chapter 11.)
Some answer the problem of clean versus unclean animals by saying Jephthah was turning the matter over to God. It was God's will and prerogative to determine what it is which would come through the door first to greet Jephthah; thus it would become a divine sacrifice. Essentially, it would be God choosing the sacrificial animal.
However, since the word asher is used, almost certainly no animal (clean or unclean) was being contemplated by Jephthah. The ancient Rabbis say it was probably a household slave or servant who Jephthah was envisioning. Indeed, in ancient times, it was the standard protocol for the chief house servant to race to the master when he approached, to be the first to greet him, wash the dust off his feet and give him food and drink. This was the chief house servant's job. If he failed to do these tasks, it could mean severe punishment because it was considered a great insult to not offer the master such respect.
The burnt offering
Another keyword in in the translation concerning the words "burnt offering". Jephthah said whoever comes out of the door of his house he would offer to God as a burnt offering. The word used here translated as burnt offering is olah. There are several very specific categories of sacrifices to the LORD discussed in the book of Leviticus.
While it is generally correct to define olah as a burnt offering, in fact it does not necessarily mean the burning up of a sacrifice. It more correctly translated means "near offering". The olah is the offering of a gift to the LORD in order to make yourself acceptable to Him. It is a kind of sacrifice which allows you or another to be declared sufficiently holy to come near to God. In general, this kind of sacrifice is of ritually clean animals, and the olah is presented to God by means of it being burned up on the altar. The point being that the nature of Jephthah's offering to God was it was to be a kind of offering gift to God for the purpose of making a person (or nation) acceptable to God. Whether it was actually burned up on an altar after it was offered was not technically a requirement of an olah.
Current teachings
Despite any teaching you may have heard from your pastor on this subject to the effect that it is simply not possible (given all the circumstances) that Jephthah made a human sacrifice of his own daughter, there is not a single commentary on this subject ever written prior to the Middle Ages which propounds any other outcome than indeed Jephthah made a human blood sacrifice of his child. The Middle Ages were an approximately 1000-year period which began around 500 A.D. and ended around 1500 A.D. It was not until AFTER 500 A.D. that any Bible commentator, Christian or Jew, theorized that Jephthah did NOT actually sacrifice his daughter.
A different framework
Imagine the history and the most significant events of World War II being recorded. I think we would all feel that what was recorded during the actual war, and than what was recorded within a very short time period after the events would represent the most accurate portrayal of what happened, why it happened, what people thought about it, what the consequences were and so on. Might within a decade or two some new pieces of information be added to our understanding? Perhaps. But only to a degree and only to the margins.
Now imagine this year, the year 2020, over 70 years after World War II, someone wrote a book and completely redefined the cause of the war, challenged the first hand accounts of certain significant details, replaced the thoughts of the participants with his own and modified the chain of events. We call this person "re-writing history". Most people with good common sense would have a healthy skepticism that a person who was not even alive at the time of World War II would be able to refute the accounts of thousands of individuals from all walks of life who LIVED the World War II nightmare and wrote it down as it happened.
Now further imagine if 300 years passed, and another person wrote a book which said that some of the original World War II accounts were bogus, and his new understanding of what actually happened is the correct one. How would you approach such a book? If you are like me, I am not sure I would even read it; it challenges the credulity that a person who lived three centuries after World War II who is completely disconnected by time and culture would somehow have a better idea of what happened and why it happened than those who lived during it.
But now what would you do if almost 2000 years after World War II someone came along and said they now have the real truth, and it is entirely different than what everyone ever before has stated about the war and all that happened? Well, that is the case here with the matter of Jephthah and his daughter. From the time of the actual event, and for the next 2000 years, everyone from the author of the book of Judges to the eyewitnesses to those who handed down the story from generation to generation to the commentators who wrote about it from ancient time (Jewish and gentile), all agree that the account was literal and indeed Jephthah killed his daughter. It was only after two millennia passed that some Rabbis and some Christians decided something different happened than what is plainly stated in the text, what had been universally recognized as the truth. For me, it is difficult to take such new theories very seriously.
However, I think it is only appropriate to carry this study a little bit farther and show you what it is about the biblical passages which cause some commentators to believe Jephthah did NOT sacrifice his daughter.
The two main arguments against Jephthah sacrificing his child
The two main argument against Jephthah actually sacrificing his daughter are these: first, it is implicated in the wording of the scriptural passage, and second is is the doctrinal view that God would not allow such a thing to happen and then permit Jephthah to be considered a hero in later books of the Bible.
Depending on your specific English translation, Judges 11:37-40 says when Jephthah's unnamed daughter understood she was the subject of the sacrificial offering in her father's vow, Her piousness was so great that she voluntarily agreed to accept the consequence. But first, she asked if she could have two months to go away and mourn because she would die without getting married. Jephthah agreed. Then we are told after two months, she returned and her father did to her what he had vowed, and thus she remained a virgin. Further, it says that Israel established a yearly remembrance of this poor girl during which time the women fo Israel would "lament" the daughter of Jephthah.
The keyword for this issue is virginity. Beginning sometime after 500 A.D., some commentators decided this was code for meaning her sacrifice was not being killed. Rather, it was agreeing to remain unmarried and thus a virgin for her entire life as a fulfillment to her father's vow to God. Later yet, it was added she became a worker at the Tabernacle, and that any female Tabernacle worker had to be a virgin. The logic was that this was a great sacrifice because it was considered a terrible thing for a woman in that culture and era to not produce children, as this was her main duty in life.
The text clearly states this girl was Jephthah's ONLY child (he had no sons). Henceforth, it did not matter if she was killed or remained alive as a virgin, Jephthah effectively had no heirs. Thus, his family line would end upon his death. Many claim this was the cause of Jephthah's great distress as expressed in verse 35 when he cried out, "Alas my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD and I cannot take it back."
The main reasons used by those who defend Jephthah's daughter was NOT killed to fulfill her father's vow:
1. Jephthah knew the Law of Moses and knew it prohibited human sacrifice. So he would not have done it or contemplated it.
2. Jephthah's name appears in Hebrews 11:32 as one of a short list of great people of faith. How could someone who committed a human sacrifice be included in such a list?
3. Jephthah had been anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. No one under the Holy Spirit's guidance could commit such a terrible offense such as a human sacrifice.
4. There is evidence that there was an order of full-time women workers in the Tabernacle, and they were virgins.
5. We should read into Jephthah's vow that if what came through Jephthah's door was an animal, it would become a burnt offering. But, if it was a human, that person would be some kind of vow offering to God by means of their permanent service to God.
6. When verse 40 says that every year the women of Israel would go to "lament" Jephthah's daughter for four days, in fact the word lament is a bad translation. It should be changed to "praise" here.
I cannot deny some or all the above arguments are possible. Except for the last point, every other argument is completely subjective. They are people's assumptions. They are their own postulations based on their own morality. The only subjective valid point is the sixth one, where people claim the word "lament" is an erroneous translation. They are correct.
The Hebrew word translated "lament" is the word tannah. Tannah in no way means to lament. Rather, it means to recount or to tell the story again. In later eras, before the Bible was written down, there were a group of people called tannas whose job it was to memorize the traditions in addition to what had been written down so that they could retell it accurately to others. They were to be a human library.
By translators incorrectly using the word "lament" here, the obvious intent was to make the story of Jephthah's daughter a very sad tale of a girl's death. Instead, say those who believe it was merely the girl's perpetual virginity which was at issue, the word should be "praise" (praising her for her faith to the LORD such that she gave up the right of motherhood). But this too is erroneous. Again, it tried to characterize the nature of the story to one of admiration instead of grief (lament). But the word tannah is quite neutral. It does not characterize the nature of the story; it only means to retell the story. Strictly from the Hebrew word tannah, it by no means gives evidence that they girl was killed or left alive.
In the end, it is up to you. I will tell you while I fall on the side of the girl being a human sacrifice, I am not completely closed to the very remote possibility that she simply lived out her life as a virgin.
I have no doubt Jephthah never imagined his own daughter would in any way be involved. He may have been a leader of a gang, but he conducted himself in a reasonable way with the elders of Gilead who wanted his help, he sought no revenge on his family, he approached the enemy king of Ammon in a thoughtful way without rushing into battle and he showed himself to be very concerned that God was with him. This all indicated that although he may have been rough, he was not an ignorant thug.
Yes, Jephthah made a rash vow. But have not we all at one time or another when we were deeply concerned over something, made a promise to God that we either had no real intention to keep or one which we thought better of later on? So, we cannot use this as means to caste Jephthah as a rash person.
Those who argue the book Hebrews would not make Jephthah out as a hero if he did such a dastardly and ungodly thing as murdering his own daughter need to consider the great place King David holds in the Bible. This is a man said to be "after God's own hear". Thus is a man who was promised the throne of the Kingdom of God forever, and it would be accomplished through Messiah. Yet, he committed adultery, murder, fornication, had multiple wives, put the Ark of the Covenant in his personal tent in hopes of gaining personal benefit and more.
The LORD will show mercy to whom He will show mercy. The LORD will chose to use whom He chooses to use. How we feel about it, or how we judge the criteria of His choice is irrelevant to the Father. We need to exercise great care in using our own personal doctrines based on our modern cultural morays when trying to determine when or if a Biblical character merits either the scorn or admiration assigned to him by Scripture.
Jephthah was a very flawed man. He operated like all the other Hebrews in that time who were compromised by evil. He had mixed pagan practices with the Torah, came to all sorts of conclusions about what was proper worship and proper sacrifice which were completely off the mark, and yet God uses him as he is for Kingdom purposes. Everything Jephthah did was not good. Everything Jephthah did was not in obedience to the Holy Spirit. But, some things were. Such is the life of a Believer. We will fail far more than we will follow God's will. Yet, that does not mean God does not love us or that He will abandon us. The test is not our perfection. The test is our abiding trust in Jesus our Savior.
It is God's will that we are obedient to Him. It is God's will we follow the pure ways and not do as Jephthah and so many others did to pervert God's Word with man's word. We have a guide and helper to accomplish God's will. The guide is the Holy Scripture and the helper is the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray the LORD will give us the strength and desire to rid ourselves of man-made doctrines which have no basis in truth and ought to have no place in our lives as followers of the God of Israel. Let us pray the wonderful things the LORD has planned for our lives are carried out as Jesus would carry them out and not as Jephthah did them.
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