And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” [Judges 11:30-31 (NLT)]
Skeptics love to ask how God could allow Jephthah to offer up his daughter as a burnt sacrifice. First, let’s note that it never says God approved of his sacrifice. In fact, Scripture makes it clear that such a sacrifice was abhorrent to the Lord. In His wisdom and mercy, God even provided a way out if someone made a rash or unrealistic vow. Leviticus 27 explains that such a vow could be purchased back with a 20% penalty and describes how valuations were to be determined. Although Jephthah displayed knowledge of Israel’s history when negotiating with the Ammonites, he showed his ignorance of God and God’s law with his rash vow. Moreover, there is no reason to think his daughter was sacrificed in the Tabernacle. It’s more likely that such a horrific event would have been part of a pagan ceremony.
Unlike Deborah, Gideon, and Samson, Jephthah was not a God-appointed judge or leader. Having been chased away by his brothers, he was living in the land of Tob with a “band of worthless rebels.” [11:3] Jephthah only came to the aid of Gilead because they promised he’d become ruler if victorious. That God used this “great warrior” to accomplish His purpose does not mean Jephthah was a godly man.
What Jephthah meant by his vow seems clear; he used ‘olah which meant “whole burnt offering.” In the 250 times ‘olah occurs in Scripture, it always refers to an actual sacrifice burnt on an altar. Nevertheless, because the text doesn’t explicitly state how he implemented his vow, there is some ambiguity regarding his daughter’s fate. As an alternative to being incinerated, some commentators hold that she was dedicated to God and lived in seclusion for the remainder of her life. Until the 12th century, however, both non-rabbinic sources and the Jewish sages of the Midrash took this tragic story literally—Jephthah immolated his daughter! Their commentaries cast blame upon Jephthah, the high priest, and the people who allowed such depravity.
Nevertheless, finding this story of human sacrifice intolerable, some rabbis tried to find a more acceptable alternative in the 1100s. Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra and others reinterpreted the text to mean that Jephthah’s vow really was that whatever appeared, if appropriate for sacrifice, would die but, if it wasn’t appropriate, would be consecrated for holiness. They contended that Jephthah built a house for his daughter outside the city where, isolated from the world, she devoted the rest of her life to God. Perhaps the reasoning behind their explanation can be found in the time period—an era when a tremendous number of monasteries and convents were being established throughout Europe. The rabbis may have been influenced by the Christian monastic ideals of chastity, poverty, and obedience. While a nice alternative, the concept of perpetual virginity, celibacy, and asceticism never appeared in the Hebrew Bible or Jewish texts. Priests and Nazarites could be married, Jeremiah was the only prophet not to marry, and there was no tradition of Jewish women secluding themselves and becoming the equivalent of nuns. The first commandment in Scripture was to be fruitful and multiply [Genesis 1:28] and a Hebrew woman’s highest achievement was a large family. Nevertheless, this interpretation has been adopted by many Christian commentators. Granted, Jephthah’s daughter condemned to a life of perpetual seclusion and virginity makes for a less repulsive ending to her tale but we should beware of creatively interpreting Biblical accounts to make them easier to stomach!
Although the Bible is without error, that doesn’t mean it is without difficulties. There is no acceptable alternative to the girl’s sacrifice just as there are no acceptable alternatives to stories like Lot offering up his daughters to be gang-raped [Genesis 19], the revenge taken on Shechem after Dinah’s rape [Genesis 34], or the massacre of 85 innocent priests and their families [1 Samuel 22]. The Bible’s record of an event doesn’t mean it’s endorsed and we never should assume that God approved of all that it reports. Just as God didn’t approve of David’s sins of rape, adultery, and murder, He didn’t approve of Jephthah’s sacrifice. Scripture records the real-life errors and sins of flawed human beings—people like us. It tells us what happened without necessarily telling us what should have happened or providing a moral to the story. The Old Testament’s great heroes of faith were not without faults and transgressions; neither are we! Let us learn from their mistakes.
One of the most disturbing stories in the Bible is found in Judges 11. Before leading the army into battle with the Ammonites, Jephthah made a rash vow to the Lord—if given victory, he’d make a burnt sacrifice of the first thing to come out of his house to meet him upon his return. God granted Israel victory but, when Jephthah returned home, it was his daughter who came out to greet him. When the anguished Jephthah told her of his vow, the girl willingly accepted her fate. She only asked for one thing—to go into the hills with her friends to mourn that she’d never marry or know the joy of motherhood. When she returned, “her father kept the vow he had made and she died a virgin.”
While walking in the Botanical Gardens, I left my husband on a bench by the lake while I went back to get a few more photos of the plumeria. After getting my last shot, I returned to find him gazing out at the water. When I disturbed his reverie with a touch on the shoulder, he looked up and said, “I was just enjoying Him!” I knew exactly who he meant.
When writing about Nehemiah recently, I thought about waiting. From the time he learned of Jerusalem’s broken-down walls until he spoke to the king, three months passed. Day in and day out, Nehemiah was at the king’s side but remained silent about his concern. Trusting that God would provide the opportune time, Nehemiah patiently waited at the king’s side until God provided the perfect moment when the king inquired about his cupbearer’s sadness. Had I been Nehemiah, would I have trusted God’s timing and kept silent for ninety days? What about you?
In the years following the exiles’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple, adherence to the Law grew lax. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depended on knowing the commandments of the Torah but the people had drifted away from God and His word and were committing the same sins that got them exiled! More than fifty years after the Temple’s rebuilding, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. As a priest and teacher of the law, Ezra was shocked to find such disobedience. He tore his clothes and pulled his hair in sorrow before kneeling in prayer. He led the people in prayers of confession and repentance after which they swore a solemn oath to follow the Lord’s commands.
When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, over ninety years had passed since the first of the exiled Jews had returned to Judah. Although the temple had been rebuilt for seventy years, Jerusalem’s city walls and gates were still in ruins. Nevertheless, within fifty-two days of his arrival, the walls were reconstructed and new gates installed. That Nehemiah managed to accomplish in less than two months what hadn’t been done in ninety years is a case study in Management 101.
