Judges 11:29 - Meaning and Application

We have here Jephthah winning a great victory, but his joy is mixed with the grief of a rash vow. His success shines brightly, both for his honor and for God’s honor, because he pleaded a righteous cause and God supported it.

God gave Jephthah a strong spirit, and Jephthah used it well (Judges 11:29). The people had chosen him to lead them, so it was clear that he had a real call to go into battle. The king of Ammon refused every offer of peace, so the cause was plainly just. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, lifting his natural gifts and filling him with power from above, so he became bolder, wiser, and more zealous against Israel’s enemies.

In this way God confirmed him in his office and assured him of success. Jephthah did not waste time, but went out with firm courage. Scripture also notices the route he took toward the enemy camp, likely because his choice showed the wise judgment the Spirit had given him. Those who truly walk by the Spirit will be led in the right way.

God also gave Jephthah great success, and Jephthah made full use of it (Judges 11:32). The Lord handed the Ammonites over to him, giving judgment in favor of the righteous cause. God made the stubborn feel the power of war when they would not listen to reason, for he sits on the throne and judges rightly.

Jephthah did not let the victory slip away, but kept pressing until it was complete. After breaking their forces in the open field, he chased them to their cities and struck down all who were still armed, so they could no longer trouble Israel (Judges 11:33). Yet it does not appear that he destroyed the whole people, as Joshua had done with the nations under judgment, nor that he tried to seize their land, even though their claims against Israel might have given him some excuse. He only made sure they were fully subdued. Even when others wrong us, that may justify our defense of what is ours, but it does not give us the right to do wrong in return.

Jephthah’s vow is harder to understand and is clouded with sorrow. As he was leaving his house for this dangerous mission, he prayed for God’s help and made a solemn vow. He promised that if God brought him home in victory, then whatever first came out of his house to meet him would be devoted to God and offered as a burnt offering. When he returned, the news of his victory reached home before him, and his own only daughter came out with joyful welcome. This brought him into great distress, but there was no turning back. After she mourned her sad fate for a time, she willingly submitted to his vow.

There are several useful lessons in this story. First, even true and great believers can still have some distrust and hesitation in their hearts. Jephthah had every reason to be confident, especially after the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, yet when the matter came to a decision he seemed to waver: if God would surely give victory, then he would do this and that. Perhaps the trouble his vow brought him was meant to correct his weak faith and his idea that he could not expect victory unless he promised God something costly in return.

Second, it is still good, when we are seeking or expecting a blessing, to make vows to God that promise some fitting service. Such vows should not be a way to buy God’s favor, but a way to show gratitude and to admit how deeply we owe him. The matter of such a special vow (Leviticus 27:2) must be something that clearly helps God’s glory, the good of his kingdom among people, or our own growth in his service, in what we already ought to do.

Third, we must be very careful and wise when we make vows. If we give way to a strong feeling of pious zeal, we may trap our own conscience, put ourselves into confusion, and later have to admit before the messenger of God that it was a mistake (Ecclesiastes 5:2-6). It is a snare to make a hasty promise about holy things without considering what we are able to do and without adding the needed limits that could prevent entanglement. Then, after making the vow, we ask the questions we should have asked before (Proverbs 20:25). Let Jephthah’s pain warn us here (Deuteronomy 23:22).

Fourth, what we have solemnly vowed to God must be carefully performed, if it is possible and lawful, even when it is very hard and painful. Jephthah’s sense of the binding power of his vow should be ours too (Judges 11:35). “I have opened my mouth to the Lord in a solemn vow, and I cannot go back.” That is, he could not take back the vow himself, because it was too late, and no human power could cancel it or release him from it. What had once been in his own power was no longer his to control (Acts 5:4). Vow and pay (Psalm 76:11). We deceive ourselves if we think we can mock God. If we apply this to the promises we have made in our sacramental vows, agreeing to the covenant of grace made with poor sinners in Christ, it becomes a strong reason against the sins we have promised to leave and a strong push toward the duties we have promised to do. It also gives a ready answer to every temptation: “I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot go back. I must go forward. I have sworn, and I must perform it. I must not dare to play both sides with God.”

Fifth, children should obey their parents in the Lord with willingness and cheerfulness, especially when parents make godly choices for God’s honor and for keeping religion alive in the home, even if those choices are harsh and severe. The Rechabites, for many generations, kept the commands of Jonadab their father by refusing wine, and Jephthah’s daughter did the same here. For the sake of her father’s conscience, and for the honor of God and her country, she gave herself up as one devoted (Judges 11:36). “Do to me according to what has come from your mouth.” She knew she was dear to him, but she was willing that God should be dearer. A father could set aside a vow made by a daughter (Numbers 30:5), but a daughter could not cancel a vow made by her father, not even one like this.

This makes the fifth commandment look even more serious. Our friends’ troubles should become our own troubles. When she went out to mourn her hard fate, the young women, her companions, joined her in grief (Judges 11:38). These were the women of her own age and sex, who likely expected to celebrate her wedding after her father’s sudden rise. Instead, they were called to go with her into the mountains and share her sorrow. Those are not true friends who are willing to rejoice with us, but not to weep with us.

It also shows that bold zeal for God’s honor and for Israel’s good, even when mixed with weakness and poor judgment, should be remembered. The daughters of Israel did well to keep the memory of Jephthah’s daughter through a yearly custom, because she showed noble courage when God had given Israel victory over their enemies (Judges 11:36). Such a striking example of someone who valued the public good above her own life should not be forgotten. Her sex kept her from going to war and risking her life in battle. Instead, she risked something greater, because she may have sensed her father’s vow and chosen her path knowingly, since he later said, “You have brought me very low” (Judges 11:35).

She was so moved by the victory, which was a blessing for the whole nation, that she was willing to be given up as a thank-offering for it. She counted her life as well spent if it was laid down for such a great cause. She saw it as an honor to die, not as a sacrifice to atone for the people’s sins, because that honor belongs to Christ alone, but as a sacrifice of gratitude for the mercies God had shown Israel. From Jephthah’s distress here, we should learn not to think it strange if a day of triumph in this world also brings some grief. We should always rejoice with trembling, because we still hope for a future triumph that will have no sorrow mixed with it.

Still, this story raises some hard questions, and learned men have spent much time on them. I will say little about them here, because Mr. Poole has discussed them fully in his English notes. One question is what Jephthah actually did to his daughter in keeping his vow. Some think he only shut her away as a nun, and that, since one part of his vow would have forbidden a burnt offering, he kept the other part by making her wholly dedicated to the Lord. That would mean she gave up marriage and spent her life in devotion. Support for this view is found in the fact that she is said to mourn her virginity (Judges 11:37, 38), and that she never knew a man (Judges 11:39).

If Jephthah had sacrificed her, it would have been fitting for her to mourn not her death, since that was meant for God’s honor and she would have faced it willingly, but the sorrowful fact that she was her father’s only child. In her, he had hoped to continue his name and family, and she was unmarried with no children to carry on his honor and estate. That is why it is especially noted earlier that he had no other son or daughter besides her (Judges 11:34). Even so, I do not think Jephthah was trying to satisfy his vow in this way, or rather to avoid it. In all the Old Testament, there is no law, custom, or example that suggests single life was a religious duty, or that a person was more holy, more the Lord’s, or more devoted to him simply because they never married. It was not part of the law for priests or Nazirites. Deborah and Huldah, both prophets, are both named as married women.

Besides, if she had only been shut away to remain unmarried, she would not have needed two months to mourn that, since she had her whole life ahead of her for such grief if she wished. She would not have needed such a sorrowful parting from her companions either. Those who hold this view understand the words in Judges 11:40 to mean that the women came to talk with her four days in a year. So it seems more likely that he offered her as a sacrifice, according to the plain wording of his vow. He may have misunderstood the law about persons devoted by a curse, applying it to people devoted by vows as well (Leviticus 27:29, “None devoted shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death”). He may also have wanted clearer guidance about whether the law allowed him to redeem her.

Perhaps Abraham’s attempt to offer Isaac encouraged him. He may have thought that if God did not approve this sacrifice, he would send an angel to stop him, just as he stopped Abraham. If she had come out on purpose to be offered, as she may have, he may have thought that made the matter clearer. No wrong is done to someone by what that person willingly accepts. He may also have thought that where there was no anger or malice, there was no murder, and that his good motive would make the action acceptable. Since he had made the vow, he may have thought it was better to kill his daughter than to break his word, and to let Providence bear the blame for bringing her out to meet him.

If we assume Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter, the next question is whether he did right. Some defend him and think he acted well, as one who valued God’s honor above what was dearest to him in this world. He is named among the great believers who, by faith, did great things (Hebrews 11:32), and this would have been one of them. He did it deliberately, after two months of thought and discussion. No inspired writer ever directly blames him for it. Even so, though this may greatly honor fatherly authority, it still cannot justify anyone doing the same thing.

Jephthah was an extraordinary man. The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and many details now lost to us may have made this case wholly unusual. Some learned men have seen in this sacrifice a picture of Christ, the great sacrifice. He was pure and holy, as she was a chaste virgin. He was given over to death by his Father and made a curse, or devoted thing, for us. He submitted himself, as she did, to his Father’s will: “Not as I will, but as you will.”

Most, however, condemn Jephthah. He did wrong to make such a rash vow, and worse to carry it out. His vow could not bind him to do what God had forbidden in the sixth commandment, “You shall not kill.” God had forbidden human sacrifice, so this was, as Dr. Lightfoot says, in effect a sacrifice to Moloch.

Probably, the inspired writer left it unclear whether Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter so that later parents would not find any excuse to offer their own children. Some passages in Scripture are hard, and learned people disagree about them. We do not need to trouble ourselves overmuch with such matters. What is needed for our salvation, thanks be to God, is clear enough.