The debate still rages about the fate of Jephthah’s daughter, but it sure is a warning about vows.
Jephthah was the result of an inappropriate relationship, “the son of a harlot” (Jdg 11:1). As such, the sons of his father’s wife “drove Jephthah out, and said to him, ‘You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house’” (v 2). This longing for belonging was evident when the elders of Gilead recruited him to battle the Ammonites. He reminded them of this: “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house?” (v 7). Thus his one request, if he defeated Ammon: “Shall I be your head?” (v 9). Now, with the Spirit upon him, he can almost taste the victory, not just over Ammon, but over the wrongs done in the past. Did he hope to establish a dynasty so that not only he but his whole family would be recognized? But Jephthah isn’t just counting on the promise of fickle neighbors. He makes a vow to the Lord. “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that 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” (vv 30-31). The battle was epic, and “the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel” (v 33). But when he returned to Mizpah, “there was his daughter, coming out to meet him…and she was his only child” (v 34). Oh the heartbreak! There is debate whether Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter. Rather, it seems she was to remain a virgin: “he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man” (v 39). Some say the best translation reads: “I will consecrate it to the Lord, or I will offer it for a burnt-offering.” In any case, Jephthah’s hopes of a dynasty vanished that day—yet there he is in God’s dynasty of faith in Hebrews 11, all by grace alone.