Abomination and Jephthah’s Vow

We learn dedication from Jephthah’s daughter - dedication we need to be displaying as well.

Solomon wrote, “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).

In a way, we make a vow when we are baptized. It is a commitment to change, to stop doing our own will, and to start doing God’s. Perhaps when Solomon wrote this passage, he was rephrasing Numbers 30:2, when Moses wrote,

“If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”

Some may think the word “vow” is too strong in regard to ourselves. However, the dictionary defines a vow as “a solemn promise or pledge to God, dedicating oneself to an act, a service or a way of life.” The word “commitment” is defined as “a pledge or promise to do something.”

Of the two definitions, the one for vow seems to be the better of the two to describe the action taken at baptism. Even though we make such a vow at baptism, we know we cannot fully keep it because we all fail. This circumstance is where redemption comes in. All vows under the Law of Moses were redeemable by an amount of silver or by some means determined by God. Without redemption, we are all lost, which is why God provided it.

In Scripture, our faith is likened unto tried silver, but we are redeemed and justified by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist wrote, “For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.” (Psalm 66:10).

Jephthah’s Vow

When one thinks about vows in Scripture, Jephthah often comes to mind. But just what was it that Jephthah vowed, and what did he do to fulfill his vow to God? There are certainly a lot of differences of opinion on these two questions.

Many make three assumptions about Jephthah’s vow, which may lead to an improper interpretation.

1. That Jephthah’s vow doesn’t really make sense, and therefore he didn’t really know what he was saying.
2. That a person can satisfy a vow to God by disobeying His direct commands.
3. That the various versions of the Old Testament have inaccurately expressed Jephthah’s vow.

Each of these assumptions needs to be addressed based on the Word itself, but not necessarily in the order presented here. A brief amount of groundwork should be considered. Without detailing the whole story of Jephthah from Judges 11, here is a summary of the details.

First, it was God Himself who placed Jephthah in a position to deliver Israel from the oppression of God’s enemies. In 1 Samuel 12:11, Jephthah is one of four men selected by God. “And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.” 

Now, let’s look at the vow Jephthah made. 

It was certainly Jephthah’s intent in his vow to dedicate something to God if He would deliver the children of Ammon to him without fail. But the wording of his vow is so uncertain that it is presented differently in almost every version of the Bible.

Nevertheless, it was a normal practice under the Law in those days to make a vow of an individual’s services to God. In Leviticus 27, vows are discussed (vv. 1-27), and this situation is the first item covered. Therefore, to fulfill his vow, Jephthah was expecting to give God a person, not an animal—more precisely, both a person and a burnt offering. 

His vow was in two parts. “Whatsoever 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.” There is no use laboring the point of whatsoever versus whomsoever, as the Hebrew word asher can be translated by either of those two English words. However, with the assumption that Jephthah intended to give to the LORD a person, the word “whomsoever” is a better choice. Jephthah’s vow manifestly signified something of significant value to him; thus, it amounted to a considerable sacrifice.

Since the very nature of his vow involved a person, it must refer to someone over whom Jephthah had complete control. The possibilities are limited to two persons—a favorite servant or his daughter. Consequently, the conclusion becomes inevitable that Jephthah was vowing unto God someone for whom he had great affection, someone whose loss he would mourn bitterly. As mentioned, it needs to be recognized that the vowing of persons was perfectly normal under the Law, making provision for such acts of devotion to God in Leviticus 27:2.

The second part of the vow was, “And I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” The Hebrew text of this phrase is ambiguous and, once again, has been rendered in quite a variety of ways. The Interlinear Bible, which attempts to translate the Hebrew as accurately as possible, renders the second part of Jephthah’s vow as, “And I will offer it instead of a burnt offering.” However, there is another possibility. Hebrew pronouns are completely uncertain and can be translated as he, she, or it.

In addition, it often becomes a matter of choice as to which noun the pronoun is referring. This phrase can just as accurately be translated, “I will offer to Him (i.e., to the LORD) a burnt offering.” This grammatical construction can be found in quite a few places (Zechariah 7:5, Joshua 15:19, Nehemiah 9:28, Job 31:18, Isaiah 22:20). We do know that whatever Jephthah vowed and however he fulfilled his vow, it was right in the eyes of the LORD, because he is included in Hebrews 11:32, with those who will be saved by faith. We can be equally certain that the fulfillment of his vow was not the offering of his daughter as a burnt offering since that would have been a direct disobedience to the Law of God.

Even with all this evidence, some still feel Jephthah had no other option but to offer his daughter as a burnt offering. It is necessary to examine the problems this conclusion raises. The biggest of the issues is that human sacrifice is an abomination to God, and this is well documented in Scripture. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12). The New International Version (NIV) adds the word “sacrifices” in verse 10, which is appropriate because there is no other reason for a person to do this. Thus, the NIV begins verse 10, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices son or daughter in the fire.” This is a direct command from the LORD and is not isolated. Another of those places in Scripture is in Jeremiah 7,

What could be plainer than these words about what God has commanded? God says in both these quotations that to participate in any way with human sacrifice was an abomination to Him. When God commands something, it must be obeyed. Saul learned this lesson when Samuel reprimanded him:

Or, in Jephthah’s case, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifices, and to hearken than the fat of a young maiden.” If Abraham had been allowed to go ahead and sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on Mt. Moriah, then perhaps there would have been a precedent for this sort of sacrifice. But God stopped him after Abraham had displayed his faith in God’s promise to him. Even though Christ offered his own life as a sacrifice for sin, this was not a burnt offering.

Revelation states clearly that no one who works abomination will make up Christ’s multitudinous bride.

However, there are other problems. Another obstacle to Jephthah offering his daughter as a burnt offering is that under the Law there was no such thing as a female burnt offering. In both Leviticus chapters 1 and 8, we are told that all burnt offerings must be male.

Since, under the Law, there is no such thing as a female burnt offering, if Jephthah had offered his daughter, then that amounted to murder. The Law in Leviticus 24:21 also covers that too, “And he that killeth a beast shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.” In case you may think, “But it does not specify a woman,” take into consideration that the word man is from the Hebrew adam, and when God created both man and woman, as stated in Genesis 5:2, He called both of them adam, “male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” There is no mention in Scripture that Jephthah murdered his daughter and that he sought forgiveness for such a terrible deed. When King David ordered the death of Uriah, Scripture is quite clear that God forgave him of his sin.

The procedure for preparing a burnt offering is given in Leviticus 1:12-13. The animal had to be skinned, dismembered, some parts washed, and all but the skin placed on the altar. There was a specific order. The head first, followed by the fat, the inwards, and then the legs. It is hard to imagine a man could do this to his own daughter or that by doing so, the offering would be pleasing to our Heavenly Father.

If God had directed that Jephthah do that, then, of course, it would have been right in the sight of the LORD. However, God directed exactly the opposite, and His specific command was that a person make no such offering. 

The problem with concluding Jephthah had no option but to sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering is that it denies that God has offered redemption and assumes that keeping the letter of the Law is more important to God than keeping His direct commands. Both conclusions are wrong. Jesus spent the better part of his ministry fighting this kind of thinking: the doctrine of the Pharisees.

I believe the answer to these problems about vows can be found in a careful review of Leviticus 27. Three offerings of God were listed, and each was to be kept separate. These three offerings are:

Vows (vv. 1-27)

Devoted things (vv. 28-29)

Tithes (vv. 30-33)

Under the Law of Moses, vows were always redeemable by the amount of silver specified or by the amount of silver set by the priest if the exact vow did not have a previously set amount. The vow of Jephthah is addressed explicitly in Leviticus 27:2-4:

Leviticus 27:28 continues with the subject of devoted things, cherem, also known as accursed things. They were almost always associated with what was taken in war. They had to be utterly destroyed or given to the High Priest on God’s behalf. They could not be redeemed because they belonged to God already. Tithes could not be redeemed unless a substitution was made.

We are told specifically how Jephthah’s vow was fulfilled in Judges. “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 custom in Israel.” (Judges 11:39). There is certainly nothing in these words that indicate that he offered her as a burnt offering, which would have been a violation of the Law on two counts. One does not fulfill a vow to God by directly disobeying His commandments—on this, we can be certain. The actions of Jephthah were not only acceptable to God but indeed pleasing to Him.

Where the confusion lies is the fact that God gave Jephthah the victory in the war with Ammon, but his daughter was not part of the spoils, nor one of the devoted things from that war, but the subject of a vow made by him. According to Leviticus 27, this vow could have been redeemed by the amount of silver specified, but Jephthah decided to dedicate his daughter to God as a living sacrifice rather than as a burnt offering, which would have been a direct disobedience of God’s Law. Based on Scripture, there is little doubt that his daughter was dedicated to the LORD for the remainder of her life. As was stated earlier, this conclusion is indicated by the closing verses of Judges 11, which helps us to determine what happened.

What can we learn from these verses? If she was going to be put to death at the hands of her father, why not bewail her death instead of her virginity? It would be because she would never marry and be dedicated to the LORD. This is how Jephthah’s vow was fulfilled. Notice how the words in verse 40 go together: Jephthah “did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man.” The fulfillment of his vow, therefore, was that she would never marry.

Scripture is specific about how the vow was fulfilled, “And she knew no man.” God certainly knows how to express what He wants us to know, and He could have easily stated that at the end of the two months, she was offered as a burnt offering. However, this clearly is not said.

We know that such virgins existed because they are mentioned in Judges 21:12, where wives were found for the tribe of Benjamin to make certain that the tribe continued. These were virgins who were dedicated to the LORD and served Him at Shiloh. Under normal circumstances, they would never have married because they belonged to God. But this was no normal situation. The other tribes had vowed not to give any of their daughters to the Benjamites. Because of this, God allowed these virgins to marry, although they had been dedicated to Him.

As stated earlier, it appears that Jephthah made a proper burnt offering of a male animal in harmony with the Law in addition to giving his daughter to God. 

A further point needs to be made concerning the word “lament” in Judges 11:40. This word is translated in a variety of ways. The Authorized Version margin may have this right, suggesting the proper translation is “to talk with.”

The Hebrew word tanah is only translated “lament” twice in Scripture. Both occurrences are in Judges. Several English words can translate Tanah. However, it never has the meaning of “to lament” or “to mourn.” There are several good Hebrew words to express that thought, one of which is abal, and another is saphad. Both these Hebrew words have been translated by English words lament and mourn. But God, through His Spirit, used the word tanah, which means “to attribute honor to a person, to celebrate an action of a person, to rehearse a matter with a person or persons, and to talk with a person” (as suggested by the AV margin). This would be rather difficult to do if Jephthah’s daughter were dead! Most of us celebrate our birthdays and get together with others. However, this is not a time of mourning. The only other time this Hebrew word is used in Scripture is found in Judges.

The word tanah here is translated “rehearse.” Those who had the responsibility of sitting in judgment of God’s people would sit at the city gate and converse with each other about “the righteous acts of the LORD.” In other words, they talked with each other about God’s righteous judgment toward Israel. This would help them determine how best to render judgment themselves toward the people of God. Thus, in this only other use of the Hebrew word tanah, they talk with one another about the “righteous acts of the LORD.” In the account recorded in Judges 11, this, too, was a “righteous act of the LORD” because it allowed Jephthah to fulfill his vow without disobeying the direct commandment from God.

Also, in Judges 11:40, the four days when the daughters of Israel would talk with Jephthah’s daughter could very well refer to the four times a year when the children of Israel observed the four main feasts of the LORD.

What can we learn from this? The answer is dedication. Jephthah’s daughter displayed this, and we need to be displaying our dedication to the things of God. As stated earlier, when we are baptized, we too have made a vow to repent and stop serving ourselves to serve the LORD God Almighty and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This vow is redeemable in prayer, leaving us justified through the blood of our redeemer.

Paul Wade,
Houston West Ecclesia, TX