JEPHTHAH AND HUMAN SACRIFICE. 

By Vernon Gray

 

No scholar or the Bible would disagree that there are “difficulties” in the Word of God.

Not everything is always clear to the reader. Much of Scripture is multi-layered in that it has multiple meanings depending on your spiritual maturity. This is not to say that one meaning will be in conflict with another. Every level of meaning will dovetail together in agreement as the truth.

There is a very strange passage in the book of Judges which seems to imply that Jephthah, a Judge in Israel performed a human sacrifice to God.

 

Judges 11:1 – 3 “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.

2)  And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

3)  Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. “

The “strange woman” in verse two is not a whore in this context, his mother was a concubine and his half brothers were born of legitimate wives.

His father seems to have belonged to the tribe of Manasseh (1 Chronicles 7:14 1 Chronicles 7:17 )

As there were children by the legitimate wives, the son of a secondary wife was not entitled to any share of the patrimony, and the prior claim of the others was indisputable. Hence, as the brothers of Jephthah seem to have resorted to rude and violent treatment of what they regarded as an unnecessary intrusion upon their inheritance.

Whatever dishonor we might attach to his birth, his own high and energetic character rendered him a person of note. So much so, that he is mentioned in Hebrews 11: 32 as a man of faith.

 

Jephthah was a man’s man in that he was an accomplished leader. His reputation was widespread enough for the elders of Gilead to request his return to lead them when the Ammonites, who had oppressed Israel for eighteen years and were now threatening war on the pretext of a spurious land-grab.

It becomes obvious from the text that Jephthah was a God-fearing man who knew the Torah and lived in obedience to it. He agrees to come out of “exile” to lead the Israeli army probably to the consternation of his belligerent brothers.

Jephthah’s first reaction in dealing with the Ammonites was to consult God on the matter.

Then he tried to avoid war by pleading for sanity to prevail. The “disputed” land that the Ammonites wanted were an obvious ruse to pick a fight they thought they could easily win.

Reading this chapter is somehow like the situation in Israel today.

The Ammonites, Midianites, Ismaelites, Edomites and all the other “Ites” want land that was given to Israel by God. Jerusalem in particular is God’s personal piece of real estate.

 

In verse 29 of chapter 11 it says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah which enabled him to accomplish what God had raised him up for. This tells you that Jephthah was in good standing with God.

 

Here is where the story gets weird.

In his exuberance Jephthah makes a hasty oath before God should God give him victory over the Ammonites.

In verse 31 Jephthah swears an oath to God by saying “…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.”

It is not clear from the text what he was thinking, but what is clear is that he did not think this matter through properly.

 

God gave Jephthah an incredible victory over the Ammonites and after the battle was won Jephthah arrives home and who should come out of his door? His only child, a young daughter.

Verse 34 & 35 says “And 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. And 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.’”

 

The immediate lesson here is to not make rash promises to God or anyone else.

In our time and culture the “sanctity of the commitment” is in tatters, however a bad promise is best broken.

And so Jephthah’s daughter realizing what has happened says to her father…

Verse 36 “…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.

Verse 37  And 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.

Verse 38  And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.”

 

Finally in Verse 39 we read “And 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:”

Jephthah did what he promised before God, but the question is WHAT DID HE DO?

 

He kept his vow before God, but do we understand what that vow entailed?

The point of all the above is to ask this question…

DID JEPHTHAH SACRIFICE HIS DAUGHTER TO GOD?

From verse 39 it is implied that he did. And if he did why did God allow him to murder his daughter? And why did God not punish him for the murder?

 

Let’s look at the text more carefully.

Notice firstly that she requested a two month period where she could be with her friends in the mountains in order to “…bewail her virginity.”

She does not say “…bewail my coming death.”

It seems odd that she was more interested in the status of her virginity than she was in the impending death by a fiery sacrifice. Was there more to the story than we have understood?

As an only child she was the one who would have continued Jephthah’s line by bearing children. For her not to marry and bear children was a tragedy.

This was a big deal in that culture. A barren woman was thought to be cursed.

 

It seems reasonable that she lamenting the fact that because of her father’s promise to God she would be bound to live a life of celibacy from then on?

 

We have seen that Jephthah was a God fearing man. He kept the law. Consider the following…

·      Human sacrifice is sin to God.                                                                                             ( God destroyed entire nations because of human sacrifice)

·      Murder is sin to God. (Look at what He did to Cain)

·      Jephthah was called of God.

·      Jephthah knew that human sacrifice was not acceptable to God.

·      To murder his daughter would have been a terrible sin for Jephthah.

·      Jephthah’s friends and neighbours would never have allowed him to sacrifice his daughter for fear of God dealing severely with the entire region or even the entire nation if such a heinous crime were committed in Israel. Saul made a foolish vow regarding his son Jonathan and Saul’s men prevented him from harming Jonathan.

·      The Lord only accepted sacrifices in the Tabernacle Alter, and could only be offered by a Levitical Priest. The Tabernacle, at that time was at Shiloh in middle of Ephramites territory. There was a raging blood feud going on at that time between Ephraim and Gilead.

·      Even the most unspiritual priest would never consider offering a human sacrifice on the Alter of God. 

·      In Leviticus 13 the burnt offering had to be a male. It was unthinkable that a man would offer a human sacrifice to God on the Alter of God, AND it was a female sacrifice.

·      Leviticus 27 provides a redemption price that would redeem such an offering.                            E.g. the first-born of every family belonged to the Lord, so you would purchace the first-born with a price pre-determined by the priests. Even if Jephthah did offer his daughter as a sacrifice, he could have gone to the priests and determined what the price for her redemption was and paid the redemption price. As a victorious general, he had just received a massive booty from the Ammonites, and as such could easily have redeemed his daughter Levitically.

 

Let us go back to verse 30…“…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.”

The word translated as “and” here is a “Waw” (pronounced “Vav”) in the Hebrew.

Hebrew does not have the word “and.” The Waw is a connective word in the same way you would use the word “and.” The “Waw” is also used as a conjunction. In other words if A and B are true, it is a conjunction. Both points have to be true for it to be a conjunction.

There is also something called a disjunction. In a disjunction A or B need to be true for it to be called a disjunction. Tom and Jerry is a conjunction. Tom or Jerry is a disjunction.

When we translate the Waw in the Hebrew, we use it as a conjunction.

Why all this technical information here?

 

Because the “Waw” used here can be used as both a disjunction and a conjunction. In other words if the word translated “and” was translated “or,” it would render the text in a totally different light.

Let’s look at it as if the “Waw” were used as a disjunction……“…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, or I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

That “OR” makes a BIG difference and a whole lot more sense to the context.

Jephthah’s vow may well have somehow included his daughter’s celibacy which meant that he would not have “seed” to continue his name. In that culture such an occurrence was a disaster and would have been hard on Jephthah and his daughter. This could be the reason she “bewailed” her virginity rather than her impending death.

 

As Samuel was dedicated by his God fearing mother to the service of God, so Jephthah’s daughter was dedicated to the service of God which included a life of celibacy.

Samson too was dedicated to the service of God as a lifelong Nazarite. The girl’s dedication meant that Jephthah would have no heirs. This is why he was so distraught when his only child coming out of the doorway.

The Scripture tells us that he “rent his clothes…” This was an outward display of his extreme anxiety and stress due to some tragedy.

Going to the mountains with her friends for two months was probably a farewell to her friends and the life she would have had if her father had not made the vow to God.

 

Most commentators ignore the immense character of Jephthah’s daughter who obeyed her father’s vow to God regardless of the consequences to herself personally.

She is as much a heroine in this story as Jephthah was a hero, yet she remains nameless in the story. There is another lesson here. Self exaltation is of the flesh. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you allow others to take the credit for it.

 

I am reminded of a missionary in India who was attending a Hindu festival of sorts.

A man who had a deathly sick child came to do obeisance to his god at this particular festival.

In his fervor to have his child healed and to engage with this god to gain favour, he took out a knife and gouged out his own eye, placing it down in front of the idol as an offering to his god.

We are sometimes hard pressed to even read our Bible, but this man lost as he was, made a commitment to futility that few Christians ever dare.

 

Conclusion.

I cannot say exactly what the vow  Jephthah made to God entailed, however in light of the above evidence it is highly unlikely that we have not interpreted this portion of Scripture accurately.

God’s Word is multi-layered and deeper than we can possibly go. It is also shallow enough for the “babe in Christ” to wallow in and be fed by the majesty of this greatest of all books.

 

God Bless,

 

Vernon.