JEPHTHAH'S VOW. Volumes have been written on the subject of 'Jephthah's rash vow :' the question being whether, in doing to his daugh ter 'according to his vow,' he really did offer her in sacrifice or not. The negative has been stoutly maintained by many able pens, from a natural anxiety to clear the character of one of the he roes in Israel from so dark a stain. But the more the plain rules of common sense have been exercised in our view of biblical transactions, and the better we have succeeded in realizing a distinct idea of the times in which Jephthah lived and of the position which he occupied, the less reluctance there has been to admit the interpreta tion which the first view of the passage suggests to every reader, which is that he really did offer her in sacrifice. The explanation which denies this maintains that she was rather doomed to per petual celibacy.
(1) Reasons for Actual Sacrifice. (I) The whole story is consistent and intelligible, while the sacrifice is understood to have actually taken place; but becomes perverted and difficult as soon as we begin to turn aside from this obvious mean ing in search of recondite explanations. (2) Again Jephthah vows that whatsoever came forth from the door of his house to meet him 'shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering,' which, in fact, was the regular way of making a thing wholly the Lord's. After wards we are told that 'he did with her according to his vow,' that is, according to the plain mean ing of plain words, offered her for a burnt-offer ing. (3) Jephthah was a good deal of a heathen, and human sacrifices were customary among the heathen people. (4) The great grief of Jephthah is only accounted for by her devotement to death.
(5) People lament the dead not the living; hence the lamentation of the daughters of Israel four days every year. (6) To /ive unmarried was re quired by no law, custom, or devotement among the Jews: no one had a right to impose so odious a condition on another, nor is any such condi tion implied or expressed in the vow which Jeph thah uttered. (7) There is not the least evidence to show that his conduct was sanctioned by God. (8) The Jewish commentators themselves gener ally admit that Jephthah really sacrificed his daughter; and even go so far as to allege that the change in the pontifical dynasty from the house of Eleazar to that of Ithamar was caused by the high-priest of the time having suffered this transaction to take place.
(2) Reasons Against Actual Sacrifice. ( t) Human sacrifices were most emphatically forbid den by the law (Deut. xviii :to; xii :3p, 3t ; Lev. xviii :21 ; XX :2 ; Ps. cvi :37, 38 ; Jer. vii : 31; xxxii :35 ; Ezek. xvi :20, 21, etc.). (2) By translating the conjunction "and" by the word "or" in Judg. xi :3o. 31, which is justified by the Hebrew idiom and thus given in the margin, all difficulty will disappear. His words would then read, "shall surely be the Lord's, or I will offer a burnt offering ;" and not unfrequently the sense requires that the Hebrew should be thus rendered (Lev. xxvii :28) where there is a similar mean ing of the conjunctive vAu. The vow would then consist of two parts.
(a) That what person soever met him should be the Lord's or dedicated to his service.
(b) That what beast soever met him, if clean, should be offered up for a burnt-offering unto the Lord. This rendering, and this interpreta tion, is warranted by the Levitical law about vows. The 'leder, or vow, in general, included either per sons, beasts, or things, dedicated to the Lord for pious uses ; which, if it were a simple vow, was redeemable at certain prices, if the person re pented of his vow, and wished to commute it for money, according to the age and sex of the person (Lev. xxvii :I-8). This was a wise regu lation to remedy rash vows. But if the vow was accompanied with cherent, devotement, it was irredeemable, as in the following cases :—"Not withstanding, no devotement which a man shall devote unto the Lord, (either) of man, or of beast, or of land of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Every thing devoted is most holy unto the Lord" (Lev. xxvii :28). Here the three vatts in the original should necessarily be rendered disjunctively, or; as the last actually is in our public translation, because there are three distinct' subjects of devotement, to be applied to distinct uses; the man, to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, as Samuel by his mother, Hannah (I Sam. i :11) ; the cattle, if clean, such as oxen, sheep, goats, turtledoves, or pigeons, to be sacrificed; and if unclean, as camels, horses, asses, to be employed for carrying burdens in the service of the tabernacle or temple; and the lands, to be sacred property.