Judges 11:38

38 Then he said, "Go." So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

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 So she said to him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD ; do to me as you have said , since the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon."
37 She said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my companions."
38 Then he said, "Go." So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.
39 At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel,
40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
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