Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Judges 11:29 - 11:40
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jephthah, after his Victory, Keeps His Vow
v. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, through the entire country east of Jordan, in order to muster as large an army as possible, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, to Remote in Gilead, with his entire army, to join that already assembled in camp at that place, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon, he attacked them in battle.
v. 30. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If Thou shalt without fail, most assuredly, deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
v. 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, after having gained the victory over them, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
v. 32. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands.
v. 33. And he smote them from Aroer, the northern city of this name, even till thou come to Minnith, a city not far from Heshbon, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, Abel Keramim, whose location is not known, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. Jephthah's victory was a deed of faith.
v. 34. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels, castanets, and with dances, an expression of highest joy, a springing and leaping for happiness; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter, he lavished upon her as his pet, the darling of his household, all the affection and devotion of a heart that had long been lonely.
v. 35. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, as a sign of deep distress and mourning, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, literally, "Deeply hast thou caused me to bow, and thou alone art distressing me," unwittingly causing him the depest agony; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back, he could not make his vow unsaid.
v. 36. And she said unto him, in a most beautiful and, at the same time, a most profoundly pathetic manner, 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. Jehovah had hearkened to Jephthah in giving him the victory, and so he must, in return, unfailingly keep his vow. The entire narrative is full of delicate and tender touches.
v. 37. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, so long he should delay the paying of his vow, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, far from the haunts of men, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows, for by the vow of her father she was destined to perpetual virginity, one of the saddest lots that could befall a daughter of Israel, the only child, moreover, through which the house of her father could be continued.
v. 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.
v. 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, by consecrating her to the service of the Lord, Exo_13:12; Num_18:15, as one of the women serving at the door of the Tabernacle, Exo_38:8; 1Sa_2:22; and she knew no man, the vow of her father denied her the married estate, and she had agreed to that vow. And it was a custom in Israel
v. 40. that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year, celebrating her in songs, in a festival, of which nothing further is known. That, then, was the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter: she had to leave the house of her father and was deprived of the right to marry, her fate being at that time unparalleled in Israel. It should be noted that this story affords no basis of proof for the unnatural system in vogue in convents, especially since the motive was entirely different.