Maybe you all will find this as amusing as I will. I get to write a 10 page paper on this passage, due in a week and a half. Curious as to anyone's impressions.
Judges 11:29-40 (NIV)
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."
36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."
38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite custom 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
This is not so much an academic response as it is one of common sense...
ReplyDeleteWhat did he expect?! What else did he have in his house that he would expect to come running out? A goat? His wife?
I think he didn't expect to defeat the Ammorites and his vow would be worthless anyway. Either that or he didn't like his wife and expected her to come running.
I can see making a vow that the first animal to come running across the pasture, sure. But out of his house. Seriously, he must not have thought too critically on that one.
Did he think before he spoke? A lesson we can all learn better. And, how impressive/awe-inspiring/humbling that he actually carried out the vow - would you? Don't you think you would start bargaining with God? I'm pretty sure I would. How many times have people prayed, "Lord deliver me from...and I will devote my life to you" only to be saved and go about their merry way forgetting their vow to God?
ReplyDeleteSo much to comment on, but such little time. I will focus on this idea of "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him".
ReplyDeleteNow, Jephthah has encountered the same type of divine spirit commissioning that earlier judges, specifically Othniel (3:10) and Gideon (6:34) had experienced. These two reference use the same Hebrew to communicate: the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him. For the first time in the narrative Yahweh is very passive witness and later becomes actively involved in his life.
The Hebrew verb "advanced" is used four times in verses 29 and 32a to emphasis how Yahweh gave them an extra red bull of the Spirit to empower them in their adventure to Ammonites. However we are not sure if Jephthah was even aware of his divine empowerment, but the Spirit seems to have prompted him to tour the Transjordanian regions to recruit troops for the coming battle. (Block, Daniel. The New American Commentary, p. 365)
So here lies my question. The narrator of Judges is only really commenting on Jephthah actions and adventures, while barely commenting on Yahweh's interventions and activity. This may imply the narrator is only focused on Jephthah, and not what Yahweh is doing in this midst of Jephtath' adventure. My question is: Where is Yahweh through out this narrative. The few verbs referring to Yahweh's activity are all in the passive tense. So I am really confused the intentionality in Yahweh's role?? Where is Yahweh? **Some interpret this non-participatory role of Yahweh as acceptance of Jepthah’s vow and complicity in the sacrifice of his daughter. (J. C. Exum, “The Center Cannot Hold: Thematic and Textual Instabilities in Judges,” CBQ 52 (1990): 422; Tapp, “Ideology of Expendability: Virgin Daughter Sacrifice,” 169–70; C. Baker, “Pseudo-Philo and the Transformation of Jephthah’s Daughter,” 196–97.)
So who knows...........complicated set of verse there my friend. There is a lot going on.....unfortunately I wanted to comment on more. ........ I know weird...........
much love
jz