Judges 11:38

38 "You may go," he answered, and he sent her away for two months. She left, she and her friends, and mourned in the mountains that she would die unmarried.

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Tanchuma.

Judges 11:38 In-Context

36 She said to him, "Father, you made a vow to ADONAI; so do whatever you said you would do to me; because ADONAI did take vengeance on your enemies the people of 'Amon."

37 Then she said to her father, "Just do this one thing for me - let me be alone for two months. I'll go away into the mountains with my friends and mourn, because I will die without getting married."

38 "You may go," he answered, and he sent her away for two months. She left, she and her friends, and mourned in the mountains that she would die unmarried.

39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did with her what he had vowed; she had remained a virgin. So it became a law in Isra'el

40 that the women of Isra'el would go every year for four days to lament the daughter of Yiftach from Gil'ad.