Judges 11:38

38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.

Judges 11:38 in Other Translations

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

38 So he said, "Go." Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains.

38 “You may go,” Jephthah said. And he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children.

38 "Oh yes, go," he said. He sent her off for two months. She and her dear girlfriends went among the hills, lamenting that she would never marry.

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.

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 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.

37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.

39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition

40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.