In the Bible did Jephtha really sacrifice his daughter?

Question

This story is at the end of Judges. Iv'e heard that he either sacrificed her, or she had to remain unmarried and work in the temple. If you've never heard of the story please don't answer. I only want to hear from strong christians who know there Bible.

Answer 1

There are various opinions on it; I just re-read it, and I'm leaning toward the idea that she was set apart to be a virgin for the rest of her life. In any case, it was a hasty vow, and God did not show approval of it. God neither approves of swearing to do anything (Matt 5:33-37), nor of human sacrifice (passages in Lev and Deut)

Answer 2

Hi there, I found this stuff. Hope it helps.

Literal "burnt offerings" HAD TO BE male (Lev 22.18-19). Jephthah's daughter obviously wasn't.
Human sacrifice was STRICTLY forbidden (Dt 12.31) and we have NO record of it being practiced (even in horrible Judges-period Israel) by mainstream Israel during this period.
The lament for the daughter is about 'not marrying' NOT about 'not living'--it makes me wonder if some kind of religious celibacy is not in view. (Maybe the women at the Entrance to the Tent were celibate--Ex 38.8--living as widows in Israel later did on Temple payrolls.)
Verse 39 calls his action a 'vow'. Lev 27.28 (coupled with 27.21) allowed people to be given over the Lord, who became servants of the Priests. As devoted to the Lord's service, some of them probably did NOT marry (cf. the Nazarite vow, in its restriction on becoming 'unclean' for family members (Num 6.7) omits the words 'husband' or 'wife'...perhaps it was sometimes involving celibacy. The only Nazies we know, though, were married--Samuel and Samson)
As the only child, and if given to the priest in this fashion, Jephthah's entire estate would go to someone else.
We have the VERY parallel case of Hannah and Samuel. She takes a vow, and offers her son to the Lord for all his life. (I Sam 1-2), and such vows did NOT allow the person to be redeemed with money (Lev 27.28-29).
Burnt offerings were ALWAYS associated with condemnation/evil--not thanksgiving and vows. Even the one non-literal use of it in Dt 13.16 (in which a town is offered as a burnt offering) involves abject judgment/condemnation--NOT at all in view in the Jephthah passage.
He would have had to offer her at some cultic site, which would have had a priest. I cannot imagine a priest (even those as lax as elsewhere in the book of Judges) that would have agreed to perform a human sacrifice!
What I have to conclude from this passage is that Jephthah does not know what a BURNT offering is, and that he is meaning an 'irredeemable vow' as a thank-offering, along the line of Hannah/Samuel. This is the only way to make sense of all the particulars. (Remember, Jephthah's home life was not the best one in the world for getting a biblical education--he was the son of a prostitute, and driven away from the house by his brothers.)

Answer 3

it ought to o.k. be a variety of cultural memory of a time whilst the persons of historical Israel have been nonetheless making the transition from cultic practices to state monotheism. For some generations, the two existed side with the aid of side. some Israelites did prepare human sacrifice earlier they have been confident to connect different tribes in scuffling with the prepare. in simple terms as we produce different strains of an formerly tale line (the two advent thoughts in Genesis as an occasion) here we've a variety of persons memory of a time whilst the daughter would have been killed as a sacrifice to Yahweh, the conflict god.

Answer 4

Read it for yourself, do not always wait hear it from others, seek the truth for yourself.

And that's biblical.

Answer 5

Jephthah now saw that a fight with Ammon was God’s will. With God’s spirit energizing him, he led his army to the fight. Similar to Jacob’s action some 600 years previously, Jephthah made a vow, demonstrating his wholehearted desire for Jehovah’s direction and attributing any success he would have to Jehovah. (Judges 11:30, 31; Genesis 28:20-22) Jehovah heard his vow with favor, and the Ammonites were subdued.—Judges 11:32, 33.

Did Jephthah have in mind human sacrifice when he vowed to present as a burnt offering the first one coming out of his house?

Some critics and scholars have condemned Jephthah for his vow, having the view that Jephthah followed the practice of other nations, offering up his daughter by fire as a human burnt offering. But this is not the case. It would be an insult to Jehovah, a disgusting thing in violation of his law, to make a literal human sacrifice. He strictly commanded Israel: “You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire . . . For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) Jehovah would curse, not bless, such a person. The very ones Jephthah was fighting, the Ammonites, practiced human sacrifice to their god Molech.—Compare 2 Kings 17:17; 21:6; 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31, 32; 19:5, 6.
When Jephthah said: “It must also occur that the one coming out, who comes out of the doors of my house to meet me . . . must also become Jehovah’s,” he had reference to a person and not an animal, since animals suitable for sacrifice were not likely kept in Israelite homes, to have free run there. Besides, the offering of an animal would not show extraordinary devotion to God. Jephthah knew that it might well be his daughter who would come out to meet him. It must be borne in mind that Jehovah’s spirit was on Jephthah at the time; this would prevent any rash vow on Jephthah’s part. How, then, would the person coming out to meet Jephthah to congratulate him on his victory “become Jehovah’s” and be offered up “as a burnt offering”?—Judges 11:31.

Persons could be devoted to Jehovah’s exclusive service in connection with the sanctuary. It was a right that parents could exercise. Samuel was one such person, promised to tabernacle service by a vow of his mother Hannah before his birth. This vow was approved by her husband Elkanah. As soon as Samuel was weaned, Hannah offered him at the sanctuary. Along with him, Hannah brought an animal sacrifice. (1 Samuel 1:11, 22-28; 2:11) Samson was another child specially devoted to God’s service as a Nazirite.—Judges 13:2-5, 11-14; compare the father’s authority over a daughter as outlined in Numbers 30:3-5, 16.
When Jephthah brought his daughter to the sanctuary, which was in Shiloh at that time, he undoubtedly accompanied his presentation of her with an animal burnt offering.

It was a real sacrifice on the part of both Jephthah and his daughter, for he had no other child. (Judges 11:34) Therefore no descendant of his would carry on his name and his inheritance in Israel. Jephthah’s daughter was his only hope for this. She wept, not over her death, but over her “virginity,” for it was the desire of every Israelite man and woman to have children and to keep the family name and inheritance alive. (Judges 11:37, 38.) Barrenness was a calamity. But Jephthah’s daughter “never had relations with a man.” Had these words applied only to the time prior to the carrying out of the vow, they would have been superfluous, for she is specifically said to have been a virgin. That the statement has reference to the fulfilling of the vow is shown in that it follows the expression, “He carried out his vow that he had made toward her.” Actually, the record is pointing out that also after the vow was carried out she maintained her virginity.—Judges 11:39.

Moreover, Jephthah’s daughter was visited “from year to year” by her companions to ‘give her commendation.’ (Judges 11:40) The Hebrew word ta·nah′, used here, also occurs at Judges 5:11, and in that text is variously rendered “recount” (NW), “rehearse” (King James Version), “recounted” (AT), “repeat” (RS). The word is defined in A Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (edited by B. Davies, 1957, p. 693) as “to repeat, to rehearse.” At Judges 11:40 the King James Version renders the term “lament,” but the margin reads “talk with.” As Jephthah’s daughter served at the sanctuary, doubtless like other Nethinim (“Given Ones” devoted to sanctuary service), there was much she could do. These persons served in gathering wood, drawing water, doing repair work, and undoubtedly performing many other tasks as assistants to the priests and Levites there.—Joshua 9:21, 23, 27; Ezra 7:24; 8:20; Nehemiah 3:26.

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