Did Jephath Kill His Daughter?

[Mason]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason
Hi ATYCLB,
Thanks for being honest. I tried to post under yours instead of PM you but it said I was not allowed to for some reason. Any other suggestions?

In Christ,

Mason


Quote:
Originally Posted by ATYCLB
I'm not real sure how to answer, Mason. I'll have to
read it through a few more times.

Why not post your questions under Bible Study and we'll
see what folks have to say.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason
Hi There,
I was reading your post about Judges Chapter 11 about Jephath, etc. Do you take it that Jephath killed his daughter? If so what in the world would God want with that? It sounds morbid and not something that God would want. I guess I am thinking that God spared Isaac from being sacrificed so why not this girl. Anyway, perhaps I am reading this wrong KJV can get confusing to me sometimes.

God Bless,

Mason

[ATYCLB]

Jdg 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot: and Gilead begot Jephthah.

Jdg 11:2 And Gilead's wife bore 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.

Jdg 11:3 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.

Jdg 11:4 And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

Jdg 11:5 And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

Jdg 11:6 And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

Jdg 11:7 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?

Jdg 11:8 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

Jdg 11:9 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

Jdg 11:10 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.

Jdg 11:11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.

Jdg 11:12 And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?

Jdg 11:13 And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.

Jdg 11:14 And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:

Jdg 11:15 And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

Jdg 11:16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;

Jdg 11:17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.

Jdg 11:18 Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.

Jdg 11:19 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.

Jdg 11:20 But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

Jdg 11:21 And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

Jdg 11:22 And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

Jdg 11:23 So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

Jdg 11:24 Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

Jdg 11:25 And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,

Jdg 11:26 While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?

Jdg 11:27 Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

Jdg 11:28 Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

Jdg 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.

Jdg 11:30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
Jdg 11:31 Then 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.

Jdg 11:32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

Jdg 11:33 And 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.

Jdg 11:34 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.

Jdg 11:35 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.

Jdg 11:36 And 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.

Jdg 11:37 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.

Jdg 11:38 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.

Jdg 11:39 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: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,

Jdg 11:40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

[Obadiah]

The text is difficult to work through, but a solid argument can be made that he did not.

It's not an easy read, but the best book I've seen on the subject is Jephthah and His Vow by David Marcus. It's available for reading on Google's Book Search. (http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=xszdBK61CT4C&dq=%22david+marcus%22+%22jephthah+and+his+vow%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=FhZXRtt8LU&sig=s7q49jjS9RgAHwtO6Sqn_qOZq-c&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result)

[Paidfor]

IMHO she remained a virgin and served the Lord in the tabernacle. There are arguments each way. But I think the best argument is that after the priesthood was established by the law, people did not perform their own sacrifices. He could not have gotten a priest to perform a human sacrifice.

[bookworm1711]

Studying the life of Jepthah, I noticed he was quite a student of Scripture (as much as they had at that time: consider Judges 11:11-28).

He seems to have misunderstood the provisions in the Mosaic law regarding vows.

He may have involved himself in a rash vow. There were appropriate provisions in the Mosaic law to guard against this. It is possible he confused the provisions in Leviticus 27:2-5 and Leviticus 27:28, 29.

Among the older but very excellent commentators, Matthew Poole argues that the daughter was sacrificed.

There are possible arguments on the other side of the question to suggest she was not:

(1) Human sacrifices were always an abomination to Jehovah, of which Jepthah could not be ignorant. Therefore, he would neither have made such a vow, nor carried it into execution.

(2) We are expressly told (Judges 11:29) that Jephthah was under the influence of the Spirit of God, which would effectually prevent him from shedding the blood of his own child.

(3) He would be aware of the provision in Scripture that he had it in his power to redeem his daughter (Leviticus 27:4). Surely his only child must have been of more value than thirty shekels.

(4) Besides, who was to perform the horrid rite? Not Jephthah himself, who was not a priest, and for whom it would have been most unnatural and inhuman. Certainly the priests would have dissuaded him from it.

(5) The sacred historian informs us that "she bewailed her virginity," that "she knew no man," and that the Israelite women went yearly to comfort or lament with her, Judges 11:40, marginal reading.

[fracturedInfinity]

Maybe I'm just being a simpleton, but it seems plainly clear what happened to his daughter:

verse 38
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

What was his vow?

Verses 30-31
And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then 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.

Who came to meet him as soon as he got home?

Verse 34
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.

He sacrificed her for a burnt offering. I think God didn't spare her like he did Isaac because of the situation. With Isaac, it was God who had made a covenant with Abraham and was using Isaac to test him. With Jephthah's daughter, it was Jephthah that made a rash vow before God, and when we do that, he expects us to uphold our end of the bargain.

At first this may seem cruel, but think about it. What did God do for us in Jesus? He made a vow to us in that he sacrificed his only son for our sins on the cross so that one day we could be with him, provided we believe on the name of Jesus. God holding Jephthah to his word may seem cruel, but in reality he was not holding Jephthah to anything that he himself wouldn't have done (and in fact, did do in Jesus). Is God a cruel God? No, but he is a just God and when payment has been required, it must be paid (remember, in the story of Isaac, God provided a sacrifice to be killed in the place of Isaac, so the payment was covered, just like Jesus did for us in dying in our place for our sins).

What else can we learn from this? For one thing, make sure we understand 100% what we are promising to God before we go making rash promises that we might not want to, or cannot humanly possibly keep. Second, the answer of Jephthah's daughter shows complete trust in God even when it meant her death. I think we would do well to learn from her example in giving our lives completely over to Him.

[Mason]

Dear FracturedInfinity,
I understand to a point what you are saying but Jesus died for our sins Jephthah's daughter did not. What purpose did her death exactly serve? God says he knows the plans he has for us and they are to prosper us and help us not be sacrificed because of something my father said. Who was her father to make such a vow anyway? I thought God made it clear in the old testament that he detested human sacrifices such as to Dagon, etc. It seems extremely pagan and I do not see why God would want or need this for anything. I think the passage is jumpy and confusing. It seems to be saying that she and her girl friends were crying over her virginity. What does that have to do with her father about to murder her? I would think she would be worrying about something other than her virginity at that moment in time.

[Sing4Him]

Jepthah DID offer his daughter up as a burnt offering. WHY? He was a righteous man who made a vow with God Almighty. He asked God to help him conquer the Ammonites. He made a "deal" with God and stated that the first thing that would go through the door of his home, he would offer as burnt offering. Unfortunately, this "deal" ended up in his own virgin daughter, walking through the door.

This shows of form of bribery of man with God. It was totally wrong. It reveals incomplete faith in God and His handling of every situation. Jehpthah thought he could make he situation better. This also reveals lack of trust in God. Jepthah's vow with God was corrupt as we can see this was a human he was sacrificing! 'not even an animal.

The result of lack of faith and trust; plus humanistic plans of sacrifice (non Biblical) caused th death of his only child, a daughter.

The purpose? Man must put full faith in the Lord Jesus who answers our prayers according to His will, not ours. "thy will be done" " IN Jesus' name" --amen.

[His Bride]

Sing, I'm glad you answered Mason. Mason, I PM'd you with my answer which agrees with Sing and FrancturedInfinity. I hope this answers your question.

[Mason]

Okay I think that makes more sense to me. So God did not want nor condone this then. That makes since to me. Thanks Sing4him I like the way you put it. Thanks for everybody who has responded to this it has helped me a lot. I have heard atheist mention this as an excuse to say that our God and Allah and ever other God of War are the same and that our God is just as much about death as others, etc.