Jephthah
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- This article is about the Judge of Israel. For the oratorio see Jephtha (oratorio).
| Judges in the Bible |
|---|
| In the Book of Joshua |
| Joshua |
| In the Book of Judges |
| Othniel |
| Ehud |
| Shamgar |
| Deborah and Barak |
| Gideon |
| Abimelech |
| Tola |
| Jair |
| Jephthah |
| Ibzan |
| Elon |
| Abdon |
| Samson |
| In the Book of Samuel |
| Samuel |
Jephthah (also spelled Jephtha; from Hebrew יפתח Yiftach / Yipthaχ) is a character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years (Judges 12:7). He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead.
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[edit] Summary
The Israelites "again did what was evil in the eyes of God...they abandoned God and did not worship him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites ..." (Judges 10:6-7).
Jephthah is driven out by his half-brothers, and takes up his dwelling in Tob, east of Gilead. "There gathered around him some worthless ["empty"] men, and they went out with him." (Judges 11:3) The elders of Gilead ask him to be their leader in the campaign against the Ammonites, but he holds out for a more permanent and a broader position, and the elders agree that provided Jephthah succeeds in defeating Ammon he will be their permanent chieftain. On behalf of Israel as a whole, and in reliance on the might of God the Judge, Jephthah challenges the Ammonites. The spirit of God comes upon Jephthah and he swears an oath:
- "Whatever/whoever emerges and comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be God’s, and I shall sacrifice him/her/it as a holocaust."[1] (Judges 11:31 - a holocaust is a burnt offering).
The victorious Jephthah is met on his return by his daughter, his only child. Jephthah tears his clothes and cries, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low!" but is bound by his vow: "I have given my word to God, and I cannot go back on it"(Judges 11:35). The girl asks for two months' grace, "... that I may go down on the mountains ... and bewail my virginity" (Judges 11:37). And so Jephthah "carried out his vow with her which he had vowed" (Judges 11:39). The story ends by recounting how "the daughters of Israel went four days each year to celebrate about[2] the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite" (Judges 11:40).
Later, Jephthah went to war against the Ephraimites, who refused to acknowledge him. The story is remembered for the killing of the fugitive Ephraimites who were identified by their accent; they said the Hebrew word shibboleth as sibboleth. "And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand." (Judges 12:5-6).
He is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 30.
[edit] Interpretations of the sacrifice
The nature of Jephthah's vow and his fulfilment of it has been the subject of many debates among readers. Some have argued that this was a practice of dedicating women to virginity, but others regard it likely that he really sacrificed her as an offering. The Judaean writer Josephus actually believed that she was literally sacrificed, depicting the incident as follows:
| “ | But as he came back, he fell into a calamity no way correspondent to the great actions he had done; for it was his daughter that came to meet him; she was also an only child and a virgin: upon this Jephtha heavily lamented the greatness of his affliction, and blamed his daughter for being so forward in meeting him, for he had vowed to sacrifice her to God. However, this action that was to befall her was not ungrateful to her, since she should die upon occasion of her father's victory, and the liberty of her fellow citizens: she only desired her father to give her leave, for two months, to bewail her youth with her fellow citizens; and then she agreed, that at the forementioned time he might do with her according to his vow. Accordingly, when that time was over, he sacrificed his daughter as a burnt-offering, offering such an oblation as was neither conformable to the law nor acceptable to God, not weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would have of such a practice. | ” |
Smith's Bible Dictionary from the 1860s also claims that the offering was literal:
| “ | Vowing his vow unto God, (Judges 11:31) that he would offer up as a burn offering whatsoever should come out to meet him if successful, he went forth to battle. The Ammonites were routed with great slaughter; but as the conqueror returned to Mizpeh there came out to meet him his daughter, his only child, with timbrels and dancing. The father is heart-stricken; but the maiden asks only for a respite of two months in which to prepare for death. When that time was ended she returned to her father, who "did with her according to his vow".......That the daughter of Jephthah was really offered up to God in sacrifice is a conclusion which it seems impossible to avoid. | ” |
Others highly disagree. E.W.Bullinger (Great Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrew 11 (1911) ISBN 0825422477), looks at the word "and" in the Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11:31: "whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering"). As he explains [3] the Hebrew word ו that is translated in the above passage as "and":
is often used as a disjunctive, and means "or", when there is a second proposition. Indeed this rendering is suggested in the margin of the A.V.
Bullinger goes on to give examples from the Bible where the same word has been translated as "or". According to him, the right translation of this passage is: "whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, or I will offer it up as a burnt offering." Jephthah’s daughter, being the first that came out of the house, was thus, according to Bullinger, dedicated to God. Bullinger gives also further evidence in support of his view. As he says for verse 39 of Judges:
It is recorded that Jephtha "did with her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man" (v. 39). What has this to do with a burnt offering, one way or the other? But it has everything to do with the former part of his vow, in dedicating her to Jehovah. This seems to be conclusive. It has nothing to do with a sacrificial death, but it has to do with a dedicated life. She was dedicated to a perpetual virginity.
He also says:
In any case, it should have been unlawful, and repugnant to Jehovah, to offer a human being to Him as a burnt-offering, for His acceptance. Such offerings were common to heathen nations at that time, but it is noteworthy that Israel stands out among them with this great peculiarity, that human sacrifices were unknown in Israel.
Furthermore, another source, Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) says:
| “ | 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 worshiper of YHWH, his evident acquaintance with the law of Moses, to which such sacrifices were abhorrent (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:31), and the place he holds in the roll of the heroes of the faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:32), to conclude that she was only doomed to a life of perpetual celibacy. | ” |
Ancient Jewish writers interpreted it as a human sacrifice, as seen explicitly, for example, in the classical Pseudo-Philo, where the daughter sings a lament about her impending death and its necessity to fulfil Jephthah's vow. That Jephthah's daughter was indeed offered as a burnt-offering was also the common opinion amongst Fathers of the Christian Church since the Holy Spirit is said to be upon Jephthah when he made his vow. According to their interpretation Jephthah was foreshadowing the sacrifice of Jesus. Leviticus 27:16-29 is used in support of both positions. On one hand it can be argued that these items are destroyed, but the cited text also allows for ransoming and also mentions land which can not be destroyed and was traditionally turned over for temple use. Some Jewish sources claim that Jephthah may have expected an "unclean" animal such as a dog to greet him upon returning home. Alternatively, the main point of this story may be to instruct young girls as to how to behave should they ever be selected for service (verses 37-38). That is, it could be a normative tale. Whatever the case, it became a custom in Israel (perhaps only in the region of Gilead) that women should go out four days every year and lament the daughter of Jephthah.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ The words translated here as "sacrifice" are capable of other readings, and the ambiguity has been the subject of much discussion - see below.
- ^ The translation is uncertain: it might mean "celebrate/recount/talk about", or alternatively "lament", or even "to talk with".
- ^ Did Jephthah really sacrifice his daughter? An analysis of Judges 11:31. The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, Reprint of the original contribution of E.W. Bullinger. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
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Jephthah
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| Preceded by Jair |
Judge of Israel | Succeeded by Ibzan |
