And Jephthah vowed a vow to Jehovah, and said, If thou wilt without fail give the children of Ammon into my hand,
The Spirit of the Lord has just come on Jephthah, and at that moment he stops to bargain with God for the victory. Why add a condition when God has already given the power, and what did the promise commit him to?
The vow comes right after the Spirit comes on him. One writer sees the flesh at work in a man who already had all he needed.
"The Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah." Sadly, how often the flesh shows itself in us, as it did in him. He was not content with divine grace and power. Not knowing the true character of God, he "made a vow to the LORD" (v. 30). He made an arrangement with God, as a deal between two sides. Binding himself before Him in a legal way, he fell into Israel's error in the wilderness of Sinai.
Why does that comparison matter? Because of what every vow takes for granted about the one who makes it.
It is of the very essence of a vow that it assumes the ability to fulfil it; and where is man's ability? A bankrupt might as well write a cheque on the bank as a helpless sinner make a vow. A man who makes a vow denies the truth about his nature and condition.
The next verse spells out the terms. One word carries the whole weight of the vow.
Here the rashness of the man enters the scene, and what follows is painful in the extreme. Man is as weak and erring as God is mighty and good... The same word means "whoever". There is no difference in form. I have no doubt he put it in the broadest way... Had he stopped to think, he could hardly expect an ox or a sheep to walk out of the house.
Not every impulse to give God something back is healthy. One writer names what drives this promise.
It is natural that a soul who has been the subject of a great and wonderful deliverance... should want to do something, or bring something, to God in return. But the way we express that desire is always imperfect. It may even offend the One whose glory is supposed to be its object — as with Jephthah, where self-importance and self-advancement seem to be the real motive behind his vow.
One thing the story never records is God's answer to the vow.
God left Jephthah with the responsibility and the consequences of his vow. He showed neither approval nor disapproval of it. Heaven seemed closed to the voice of Israel's leader. Yet the Spirit of Jehovah granted him the victory.
The writers here do not agree about what came of the vow. Some deny that Jephthah ever killed his daughter:
As for Jephthah's vow, there seems to be haste and failure in it, but surely not the human sacrifice many have imagined. Most commentators agree, and believe his daughter was simply set apart to God, to live an unmarried life, as verses 37-39 seem plainly to show... Jephthah's words to the king of Ammon show that he knew the law, and by the law such an offering was forbidden as an abomination (Leviticus 18:21). No altar could have been found for it, and no priest would have performed it... The word does not mean "burnt offering" in Hebrew, but simply an "offering that ascends" — all ascends — to God.
Others take the plain reading and see the silence of the text as deliberate:
What came out we know too well. It was his daughter, and I do not doubt that he, in his determined and unbending spirit, carried out his vow... Scripture does not in any way vouch for the spotlessness even of those who acted in faith. It does not throw a veil, as people love to do, over what is ugly and distressing in those who bear the Lord's name. Here the Spirit of God has one aim: to show the frightful results of a vow so little weighed before God, and not drawn from His guidance at all... The reserve of the Holy Spirit is as strikingly in keeping with God as the rashness of Jephthah is a solemn warning to man.
The test is not sincerity but source.
God did not put this vow into his mind. If we too form some idea of what we might do for God, let us first be sure that God is moving us to do it. We cannot trust our own natural thoughts.
- Power first. The Spirit came on Jephthah before he vowed anything; he already had what he was trying to buy.
- Then the bargain. He turned a gift into a contract, binding himself to God in a legal way — the same mistake Israel made at Sinai.
- Then the rashness. The word for "whatever comes out" also means "whoever"; a moment's thought would have told him no ox walks out of a house door.
- Then God's silence. Heaven neither approved nor forbade the vow. God left him with the consequences — and still gave the victory.
- Then the warning. Before you promise God anything, be sure the thought came from Him. Commentators differ over what happened to his daughter, but none defend the vow.
then shall that which cometh forth from the door of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, be Jehovah's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.
The Spirit of the Lord has just come on Jephthah, and he is marching against Ammon. On the way he adds terms of his own: victory in exchange for whatever comes out of his door to greet him.
The vow comes right after the Spirit of the Lord comes on him. A man who already had God's power still wanted a deal with Him.
"The Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah." How often the flesh shows itself in us, as it did in him. He was not content with divine grace and power. He did not know the true character of God. So he "vowed a vow to Jehovah" and made an arrangement with God, on the footing of a mutual agreement. By binding himself before Him in a legal way, he fell into Israel's error in the wilderness of Sinai.
God did not stop him, and He said nothing for or against the vow.
God left Jephthah with the responsibility and the consequences of his vow. He showed neither approval nor disapproval. Heaven seemed closed to the voice of the leader of Israel. Even so, the Spirit of Jehovah gave him the victory.
The Hebrew behind "whatever comes out" is as wide as the English. A moment's thought would have told him who comes out of a house to greet a man coming home.
In this rash vow Jephthah says, "whatever comes out from the doors of my house." The same word means whoever. There is no difference in form. I have no doubt that he put it in the broadest way… If he had stopped to think, he could hardly have expected an ox or a sheep to walk out of the house. So it is quite clear that Jephthah was guilty of the greatest rashness in his vow.
The impulse to give God something back after a great deliverance is natural, but this vow is read as self-promotion dressed as devotion.
It is natural that a soul who has been the subject of a great and wonderful deliverance, or who has come out of a long trial into light and liberty, should want to do or bring something to God in return. But the way it is expressed, always imperfect, may even be offensive to the One whose glory is supposedly the aim — as in the case of Jephthah (Judges 11:30-31), where the importance and advancement of self seem to be the real motive behind his vow.
Some hold that Jephthah did just what he said he would do. His character makes it believable.
I must confess that, with everything I have read on the subject, I have never been able to rid my mind of the fact that Jephthah did what every simple reader of the passage believes he did… A little later this same man took the fords of the Jordan. With a clear conscience he cut the throats of forty-two thousand of his fellow Israelites. A man of that makeup was not too tender-hearted to do to his daughter exactly what he said he would do.
Others point to the law he knew, to the impossibility of such an offering, and to the Hebrew wording. They conclude that he gave her to God, to live unmarried.
There seems to be haste and failure in it, but surely not the human sacrifice many have imagined. Most commentators agree, and believe his daughter was simply set apart to God, to live an unmarried life, as verses 37-39 seem plainly to show. There is not a word about death in her case, except what people suppose is contained in verse 31: "I will offer it up for a burnt offering." But Jephthah's words to the king of Ammon show that he knew the law; and by the law such an offering was forbidden as an abomination. No altar could have been found for it; no priest would have performed it… And the Hebrew certainly allows the translation "or I will offer it up." Edersheim adds that the two clauses of verse 31 are not the same. An animal burnt offering is never said to be the LORD's — as a burnt offering it already is. That wording is used for human beings given to the LORD, as with the firstborn of Israel and with Levi, and no one suggests they were sacrificed.
The Bible does not tidy this story up, and that is on purpose.
Scripture in no way vouches for the spotlessness of even those who acted in faith. It does not throw a veil, as people love to do, over what is ugly and distressing in those who bear the Lord's name. Here the very aim of the Spirit of God is to show the frightful results of a vow so little weighed before God, and not drawn from His guidance at all.
His reaction at the door shows where the fault lay. Jesus later shuts off this way of promising altogether.
When his daughter came out, he was shocked. He blamed her for bringing him very low (v. 35), instead of blaming his own foolishness… How vital, then, is the instruction of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:34: "But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all." Someone may ask us to make a pledge or a promise. But how much better to do good than to promise to do it!
- Vow unneeded — The Spirit of the Lord had already come on him. The vow added a bargain on top of power God had given.
- Vow unweighed — In Hebrew "whatever" is also "whoever," and houses do not send out oxen to greet a man coming home.
- Vow disowned — He blamed his daughter for bringing him low, not his own hasty mouth.
- Vow disputed — Commentators differ on the outcome: some read a literal sacrifice, others a life set apart to God unmarried, allowed by the Hebrew "or I will offer it up."
- Vow answered — Christ's "Do not take an oath at all" spares us Jephthah's trap: better to do good than to promise it.