Judges 11:38

38 And he said, "Go." He sent her away [for] two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains.

Judges 11:38 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 11:38

And he said, go
He granted her request at once:

and he sent her away for two months;
as she desired:

and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the
mountains;
for the space of two months: the Jewish commentators make mention of an allegorical exposition of a writer F9 of theirs, who by mountains understands the sanhedrim, to whom she proposed to go, who perhaps might find a way for the loosing of the vow; but it is a question whether there was such a court then in Israel; and had there been one, and either she or her father had applied to it, in this case the priests would have pointed out what was to be done, and especially if the vow had any regard to the sacrifice of his daughter; and even to her virginity, which he had no power to oblige her to; but the literal sense is no doubt to be followed.


FOOTNOTES:

F9 Tanchuma.

Judges 11:38 In-Context

36 She said to him, "My father, {you made an oath} to Yahweh. Do to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh gave vengeance to you against your enemies, the {Ammonites}."
37 And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions.
38 And he said, "Go." He sent her away [for] two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains.
39 At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her [according to] his vow; and {she did not sleep with a man}. And it became an annual custom in Israel
40 for the daughters of Israel to go and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for forty days of the year.
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