Judges 11:28-30
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
28 But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah’s Vow. 29 The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.(A) He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah of Gilead as well, and from Mizpah of Gilead he crossed over against the Ammonites. 30 [a]Jephthah made a vow to the Lord.(B) “If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said,
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- 11:30–40 Jephthah’s rash vow and its tragic consequences reflect a widespread folklore motif, most familiar in the Greek story of Iphigenia and her father, Agamemnon. The sacrifice of children was strictly forbidden by Mosaic law (Lv 18:21; 20:2–5), and when the biblical writers report its occurrence, they usually condemn it in strong terms (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; Jer 7:31; 19:5). In this case, however, the narrator simply records the old story, offering no comment on the acceptability of Jephthah’s extreme gesture. The story may have been preserved because it provided an explanation of the custom described in vv. 39–40 according to which Israelite women mourned Jephthah’s daughter annually in a four-day ceremony.
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