Judges 11:38

38 And he said, Go: and he sent her away for two months; and she went, and her companions, and she bewailed 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 And she said to him, Father, hast thou opened thy mouth to the Lord? Do to me accordingly as went out of thy mouth, in that the Lord has wrought vengeance for thee on thine enemies of the children of Ammon.

37 And she said to her father, Let my father now do this thing: let me alone for two months, and I will go up and down on the mountains, and I will bewail my virginity, I and my companions.

38 And he said, Go: and he sent her away for two months; and she went, and her companions, and she bewailed her virginity on the mountains.

39 And it came to pass at the end of the two months that she returned to her father; and he performed upon her his vow which he vowed; and she knew no man:

40 and it was an ordinance in Israel, the daughters of Israel went from year to year to bewail the daughter of Jephthae the Galaadite for four days in a year.