Judges 11:1-40
1 Now Jephthaha the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.
2 And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.
3 Then Jephthah fled fromb his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
4 And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5 And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:
6 And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
7 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?
8 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
10 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witnessc between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
12 And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?
13 And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
14 And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:
15 And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
18 Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
19 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.
20 But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21 And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
22 And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.
23 So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?
24 Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
25 And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
26 While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
27 Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
28 Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.
30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
31 Then it shall be, that whatsoeverd cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
33 And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plaine of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.
36 And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
37 And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go upf and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
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.
39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a customg in Israel,
40 That the daughters of Israel went yearlyh to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
He was a mighty man of valour, he was the son of a harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bore him sons; and the wife's sons when they grew up, they threw Jephthah out, and they said, You're not gonna inherit our father's house; you're the son of a strange woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers, and he dwelled in the land of Tob: and there gathered unto him vain men who began to [sort of pal around him]. And it came to pass in the process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. And it was so, when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead sent to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob: And they said to Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we might fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? why are you now come because you are in distress? The elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that you may go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all of the inhabitants of Gilead. So Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not according to your words (Judges 11:1-10).
In other words will you let me rule over you?
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, the people made him the head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all of his words before the LORD in Mizpeh. And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you come against me to fight in my land? And the king of the children of Ammon and said to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and unto Jordan: and now therefore restore those lands again peaceably (Judges 11:11-13).
So there was a little sort of a running feud. Jephthah sent, and he said, "Hey, why are you guys coming to fight to take away our land?" And they sent back, "Hey, we were here before you ever thought of being here. We lived here before you came and you came and took the land away from us."
So he wrote back to them another message. It said, "No way. We were willing to live peaceably. You came out against us. You started the fight and we wiped you. And so the land belongs to us. We've been dwelling there all along. How come you haven't come sooner to reclaim it? Why didn't you take it then you know, if it was your land? So we settled in it. It's our land."
And so they then gathered together to battle. Now, at this point Jephthah made a vow unto God. He said, "Lord if you will deliver these people of Ammon or the Ammonites into my hand giving me victory over them, then I will sacrifice unto you the first thing that comes out of the door of my house when I return home as a burnt offering unto thee."
So God delivered the Ammonites into the hands of Jephthah. And he was coming home victorious, leading the armies and who should come out the door of his house then his daughter, his only child? With a tambourine and a song that she had made up of the great victories of her father and the how great of dad and everything he was. And when he saw her come out the door he said, "Oh sweetheart, you've brought grief to my soul today."
And she said, "Dad, whatever you promised the Lord to do, go ahead and do." And so he told the vow that he had made and she said, "All right you know, you've made a vow to God and you're to do it but," she said, "Allow me a couple of months to go through the mountains with my friends and just sort of bewail my virginity." And so she went through the mountains bewailing her virginity for a couple of months.
And it came to pass [verse thirty-nine] at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year (Judges 11:39-40).
Now, number one, God had forbidden human sacrifice. There is a question of whether or not he actually killed her. The burnt offering sacrifice was actually a sacrifice of consecration unto God. And there are some commentators who teach that he gave her to God to perpetual virginity. In other words, to keep her from ever marrying and she was consigned to a life of celibacy because of the vow her father had made. That is possible, it isn't probable but it is possible. From the apparent reading of the text he did this awful thing and actually sacrificed his daughter unto the Lord.
However, I am convinced that God did not require it of him nor would God require it of him. Under the law where your first child actually was to be given to God, God made provisions for the redemption of the first child with an animal. And I'm certain that God would have allowed Jephthah to make a substitution for his daughter in this case.
We must remember that in the society that was surrounding the children of Israel in those days, human sacrifice of your children was a very common thing to the pagan gods. In the worship of Moloch, in the worship of Baal, the common practice was the sacrificing of your children unto god, unto your gods. In the uncovering of the houses of the Canaanites, in the foundations of the houses they discovered many jars with the skeletons of babies. They considered a good luck omen to actually bury your baby in the foundation when you build a house sacrificing it unto the gods and so forth. And it was common practice among the pagans by which the children of Israel surrounded. But it was something that was strictly forbidden by God. So if Jephthah did it, he did it of his own will, not because God demanded it. It is a very horrible thing. It is hard for us to understand. We cannot really blame God. You say, "But why did God allow her to come first out of the house? Why didn't she chase the cat out in front of her or something?" That I don't know. "