Verses 1-33 record Jephthah's success. The rest of his story (11:34-12:7) relates his failure. The writer likewise recorded Gideon's success first (6:1-8:23) and then his failure (8:24-9:57). 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 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, namely, 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 (21:25).
When Jephthah returned home from battle, his only child, a daughter, greeted him gleefully (v. 34). The writer's description of her recalls Miriam's joy and dancing after the Lord gave the Israelites victory over their Egyptian pursuers (Exod. 15:20). Her joy became Jephthah's grief (v. 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 (vv. 30-31). "Given my word"is a play on words (vv. 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 (v. 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. Even though Jephthah had great zeal for God, it was a zeal without knowledge. Had he known 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.226
"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."227
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. Gen. 22). She too believed that the Lord had given her father the victory over the Ammonites (v. 36).
There are primarily two possible interpretations of the fate of Jephthah's daughter as the record of Jephthah's fulfilling his vow unfolds in this section of verses.228
1. Jephthah offered her as a human sacrifice (burnt offering) to Yahweh.229
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 (v. 35).
b. The fact that she received a two-month reprieve before Jephthah carried out his vowed action suggests that she died (vv. 37-38).
c. The institution of a four-day annual feast in Israel as a result of her fate argues for her death (v. 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 (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.230
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; 20:2-5; Deut. 12:31; 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. vv. 9-11, 12-27).
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. vv. 1-3).
I believe Jephthah offered his daughter as a human sacrifice. A few years later Saul also made a foolish vow and almost slew his son Jonathan (1 Sam. 14:39, 44-45). The only thing that prevented that tragedy was the intervention of the Israelites. Ignorance of God's Word is not only unfortunate, it is also dangerous.
"Long neglect of the Mosaic law had left the Israelites with many mistaken notions about God's will."231
