Judges 11:34, commentary and pictures

After his victory Jephthah returned to his house at Mizpeh, and his daughter, his only child, came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. She was his sole child beside whom he had neither son nor daughter, and his only hope of continuing his family line. She was not put to death as a burnt sacrifice, for human sacrifice was forbidden and offensive to God, but was devoted to lifelong service to the Lord to remain unmarried and perpetually virgin. Her perpetual virginity destroyed his house in Israel and left his name without posterity or descendants, a loss she nobly accepted and which was mourned. Her coming out to meet him shows the grave, unforeseen sorrow of a rash oath that binds one to an outcome one cannot control, and lays no obligation to take life, for a prior obligation to God precludes an unlawful vow.

Meeting at Mizpeh

At Mizpeh after his victory Jephthah's only child, his daughter, came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. She was his sole child, beside whom he had neither son nor daughter, and therefore dedicating her to the Lord to remain unmarried and perpetually virgin and celibate meant giving up all hope of descendants and ending his family line. This explains his grief and her mourning, which was over her virginity and never becoming a mother in Israel rather than over being put to death or offered as a burnt sacrifice. She was not killed, for human sacrifice is in the highest degree offensive to God and the vow could only be fulfilled as circumstances permitted, but she was set apart to God for religious duties in her unmarried state and remained unaffianced for the rest of her life. Since she was his only child, her seclusion destroyed her hope of establishing a household, ranking among the mothers of Israel, and sharing in the ancestry of the promised Messiah, which is why her companions visited her yearly to show sympathy for her seclusion and esteem for her filial obedience.

Her dancing was a religious act and a demonstration of joy for victory and mercy. It was done in the daytime by women by themselves apart from men, with no promiscuous dancing of the two sexes together. It therefore gives no sanction for promiscuous dancing of the sexes together as amusement as practiced at the present time.

She came out in customary celebration as the victim claimed by his vow. Hers is a story of vow, victim, and vengeance that holds stirring and absorbing contemporaneous interest.

Virginity Not Sacrifice

She was his only child, beside whom he had neither son nor daughter, and the only hope of continuing his family line. Her coming out to meet him therefore fixed the full weight of what followed, for what touched her touched the whole future of his house.

She was not put to death or offered as a burnt sacrifice. Human sacrifice was forbidden by the law and in the highest degree offensive to God, and the vow could only be fulfilled as circumstances permitted. Her being his sole child explains his grief, for under his vow she was dedicated to the Lord and would never marry, rather than being slain.

She was instead devoted to lifelong service to the Lord, probably at the tabernacle, set apart for religious duties to remain unmarried, unaffianced, and perpetually virgin and celibate. She was the offering intended by his vow, yet the offering was made in this consecrated seclusion for the rest of her life. Because she was his sole child, her perpetual virginity ended any hope of his family continuing, destroyed his house in Israel, and left his name without posterity or descendants. He gave her up to perpetual celibacy, and the cost was that he had no hope of descendants through her.

She nobly accepted the consequence, giving up hope of establishing a household, becoming a mother in Israel and ranking among its mothers, and sharing in the ancestry of the promised Messiah. Her virginity and loss were mourned, for her grief was over remaining unmarried and never becoming a mother, not over being killed. Her companions visited her yearly to show sympathy for her seclusion and esteem for her obedience to her father.

Vow's Warning and Echoes

The meeting at Mizpeh shows the grave, unforeseen sorrow that follows a rash oath, when binding oneself to an outcome one cannot control brings a terrible consequence upon one's own house. The vow was a folly of the same kind as Herod's oath that led to the beheading of John the Baptist, and together they stand as warnings against making rash vows or promises. It was a godless and reckless gamble with a child's life, staking her future on one cast of the dice. The innocent daughter suffered for that impulsiveness, coming out in customary celebration only to become the beginning of a sad and painful event.

Yet the coming of the daughter to meet him placed Jephthah under no obligation to take her life in order to fulfill his vow. Men stand under a prior obligation to God that precludes any right to make unlawful vows or oaths, and no one is at liberty to perform an unlawful act merely because he has bound himself by a vow. The sin lies in making an unlawful vow, not in breaking it, and God accepts no act done to fulfill an unrighteous vow when it comes charged with the murder of other duties.

He had time to reconsider his vow before acting, and his moral insight would have kept him from a barbarous act. A good person may do wrong impulsively, but not after time for reflection in a religious state of mind.

Her meeting him after his victory made her the precious thing he surrendered, giving her up to perpetual celibacy. She was his only child, so the vow cost him the possibility of any further descendants and left his name without posterity. That surrender of an only child may remind readers of God giving up His only Son at Calvary.

This true Old Testament occurrence of devoting his daughter became the foundation for the monstrous heathen story of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia. The borrowing shows how the heathen took images and events from Scripture into their own system of religion. Jephthah himself stands as an example of one who was alone when God commissioned him to deliver Israel.

The account of the vow and of the daughter coming out to meet him as its victim makes a story of vow, victim, and vengeance that holds stirring and absorbing contemporaneous interest. It raises the puzzling question whether he sacrificed his daughter, a question that continues to draw close attention to Judges 11:30-40.