Jephthahs vow


"(Judg. 11:30, 31). After a crushing defeat of the Ammonites," "Jephthah returned to his own house, and the first to welcome him" "was his own daughter. This was a terrible blow to the victor," "and in his despair he cried out, "Alas, my daughter! thou hast" "brought me very low...I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and" "cannot go back." With singular nobleness of spirit she answered," Do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy "mouth." She only asked two months to bewail her maidenhood with" her companions upon the mountains. She utters no reproach "against her father's rashness, and is content to yield her life" since her father has returned a conqueror. But was it so? Did "Jephthah offer up his daughter as a "burnt-offering"? This" "question has been much debated, and there are many able" commentators who argue that such a sacrifice was actually "offered. We are constrained, however, by a consideration of" "Jephthah's known piety as a true worshipper of Jehovah, his" "evident acquaintance with the law of Moses, to which such" "sacrifices were abhorrent (Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut. 12:31), and" the place he holds in the roll of the heroes of the faith in the "Epistle to the Hebrews (11:32), to conclude that she was only" doomed to a life of perpetual celibacy.


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