Judges 11:29-40

Jephthah's Vow and Sacrifice

29 The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.
30 Jephthah made this vow to the Lord: "If You will hand over the Ammonites to me,
31 whatever comes out of the doors of my house to greet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer it as a burnt offering."
32 Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord handed them over to him.
33 He defeated 20 of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
34 When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her.
35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "No! [Not] my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me.[a] I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take [it] back."
36 Then she said to him, "My father, you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me as you have said, for the Lord brought vengeance on your enemies, the Ammonites."
37 She also said to her father, "Let me do this one thing: Let me wander two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity."
38 "Go," he said. And he sent her away two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity as she wandered through the mountains.
39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now it became a custom in Israel
40 [that] four days each year the young women of Israel would commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Judges 11:29-40 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 11

This chapter gives an account of another judge of Israel, Jephthah, of his descent and character, Jud 11:1-3 of the call the elders of Gilead gave him to be their captain general, and lead out their forces against the Ammonites, and the agreement he made with them, Jud 11:4-11 of the message he sent to the children of Ammon, which brought on a dispute between him and them about the land Israel possessed on that side Jordan the Ammonites claimed; Israel's right to which Jephthah defended, and made it clearly to appear, hoping thereby to put an end to the quarrel without shedding of blood, Jud 11:12-27 but the children of Ammon not attending to what he said, he prepared to give them battle, and previous to it he made a vow, and then set forward and fought them, and got the victory over them, Jud 11:28-33 and the chapter concludes with the difficulties Jephthah was embarrassed with upon his return home, on account of his vow, and the performance of it, Jud 11:34-40.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Lit have been among those who trouble me
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