Bible Commentaries

Judges 10:6–Judges 12:7

I. As is frequently the case, the chief interest and instructiveness of Jephthah's career gather round that event in his life which, to himself and his contemporaries, might seem to mar its symmetry and destroy its usefulness. It is the great blunder of his life, his unfortunate vow, which unceasingly draws back men's attention to him. Through all his nature he was moved in prospect of the approaching battle. It made him thoughtful, concentrated, grave. He felt more than usually thrown back upon God's help and so, according to his light, he vowed a vow. As we have no distinct evidence regarding Jephthah's state of mind in making his vow, it is the part of charity to believe that though he was incomprehensibly rash in the terms of his vow, yet he was justified in vowing to make some offering to God should He deliver the Ammonites into his hand.

II. Supposing him to have been right in making the vow, was he right in keeping it? There is an obvious distinction between a promise made to God and a promise made to man. God can never wish a man to fulfil a contract which involves sin. By the very discovery of the sinfulness of a vow the maker of it is absolved from performing it. God shrinks much more than we can do from the perpetration of sin. Both parties fall from the agreement.

III. It has often been urged that Jephthah did not keep his vow, but compromised the matter by causing his daughter to take a vow of virginity, to become a nun, in fact. This seems to sacrifice the plain and obvious interpretation of the narrative. In Judges 11:39 we are plainly informed that her father did with her according to the vow which he had vowed. Why did she ask for the one favour of two months to bewail her virginity if she was to have thirty or forty years with leisure for that purpose? And lastly, if the mere fact of her remaining unmarried fulfilled even that part of the vow which specified that she was to be the Lord's, a stronger foundation need not be sought for the establishment of nunneries.

IV. We can scarcely help thinking that while the sacrifice itself was horrible, her spirit, the spirit of the sacrifice, was acceptable to God, and what she did through reverence and dutiful submission to her father, was accepted by Him.

M. Dods, Israel's Iron Age, p. 91.

References: Judges 10:16.—Parker, vol. vi., p. 167. 10-12:7—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 453. 10—J. Reid Howatt, The Churchette, p. 235. 10—Parker, vol. vi., p. 61. 10-12.—Parker, Pulpit Notes, p. 273. Judges 11:7.—Parker, vol. vi., p. 167. Judges 11:30, Judges 11:31.—M. Nicholson, Communion with Heaven, p. 132. Judges 11:34-36.—M. Dods, Israel's Iron Age, p. 90. Judges 11:35.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Lent to Passiontide, p. 328; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1341. 11—Parker, vol. vi., p. 71. Judges 12:6.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 269. 12—Parker, vol. vi., p. 85.