Jephthah's Sacrifice

Narrator: Ivona Gentwo
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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Q. Did Jephthah offer up his daughter as a positive burnt sacrifice by death? How could this be permitted when God had said, “Thou shalt not kill”? (See Judg. 11:30-4030And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 31Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 32So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 33And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 34And 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. 35And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. 36And 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. 37And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. 38And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 39And 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, 40That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. (Judges 11:30‑40).)
A. There is nothing in the passage, when rightly understood, to suppose he did. If you read the margin of verse 31, you will find that his vow was made in the alternative. It ran: “Thus it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me,  ... shall surely be Jehovah’s, or (not “and”) I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” His only daughter met him, and hence her father’s sorrow, knowing that his vow had doomed her to be a virgin for life. He had said, “I will offer, etc., in verse 31, in the alternative of his vow, taking for granted that the first thing which should meet him might be fit for a holocaust or burnt offering. If this word was repeated in verse 39, it might have been supposed that he had offered her up; but it only says, “who did with her according to his vow,” etc. — not, who offered her, etc. The reading of the whole context will show that this is the true explanation, as also her own word, in verse 36, shows the same “Do to me,” etc. — not, Offer me, etc. —as the original language will show to those who can examine it. There is no thought of her death in the passage, but of her life-long virginity — the last thing desired in Israel.
Those who read the original will find an example of the copulative conjunction translated “or” in Exodus 21:1515And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. (Exodus 21:15), as in the margin of verse 31, as perhaps in other places also.
Words of Truth 7:100.