Judges 11 — Church Fathers

Josue

Chapter 10

Chapter 12

Ruth

Chapter 11

1 There was at that time Jephte the Galaadite, a most valiant man & a warrior, the son of a woman that was an harlot, who was born of Galaad.

2 And Galaad had a wife of whom he had sons: who after they were grown, cast out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not be heir in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother.

3 Whom he flying & avoiding, dwelt in the Land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men, & thievish, & followed him as their Prince.

4 In those days the children of Ammon fought against Israel:

5 who pressing sore upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to take Jephte out of the Land of Tob to help them:

6 & they said to him: Come & be our Prince, & fight against the children of Ammon.

7 To whom he answered: Are not you they that hated me, & cast me out of my father's house, and now are come to me forced by necessity.

8 And the Princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause be we now come to thee, that thou go forth with us, & fight against the children of Ammon, and be the Captain of all that dwell in Galaad.

9 Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and if our Lord deliver them into my hands, shall I be your Prince?

10 Who answered him: Our Lord which heareth these things, himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.

11 Jephte therefore went with the Princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their Prince. And Jephte spake all his words before our Lord in Maspha.

12 And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, which should say in his person: What is between me and thee, that thou art come against me, to waste my Land?

13 To whom he answered: Because Israel took my land when he ascended out of Ægypt, from the coasts of Arnon unto Iaboc and Jordan: now therefore with peace restore the same to me.

14 By whom Jephte again sent word, and commanded them that they should say to the king of Ammon:

15 Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take the Land of Moab, nor the Land of the children of Ammon:

16 but when they ascended out of Ægypt, he walked through the desert unto the Red sea, and came into Cades.

17 And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me that I may pass through the land. Who would not condescend to his requests. He sent also to the king of Moab, who also himself contemned to give passage. He abode therefore in Cades,

18 and compassed the Land of Edom at the side, and the land of Moab: & came against the East quarter of the Land of Moab, & camped beyond Arnon: neither would he enter the bounds of Moab: for Arnon is the border of the Land of Moab.

19 Israel therefore sent messengers to Sehon the king of the Amorrheites, who dwelt in Hesebon, & they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy land unto the river.

20 Who also himself despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude went forth against him into Jasa, & resisted strongly.

21 And our Lord delivered him into the hands of Israel with all his army, & he struck him, & possessed all the Land of the Amorrhite the inhabiter of that country,

22 and all the coasts thereof from Arnon unto Iaboc, and from the wilderness unto Jordan.

23 Our Lord therefore the God of Israel subverted the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess his land?

24 Are not those things which Chamos thy god possessed, due to thee by right? But the things that our Lord God hath obtained conqueror, shall come to our possession:

25 unless perhaps thou be better than Balac the son of Sephor the king of Moab: or canst shew, that he wrangled against Israel, and fought against him,

26 when he dwelt in Hesebon, & the little towns thereof, & in Aroer, & the towns thereof, or in all the cities near Jordan, for three hundred years. Wherefore have you so long attempted nothing for reclaim?

27 Therefore I do not sin against thee, but thou doest evil against me, denouncing me unjust wars. Our Lord be judge the arbiter of this day between Israel, and between the children of Ammon.

28 And the king of the children of Ammon would not harken to the words of Jephte, which he sent him by the messengers.

29 Therefore the spirit of our Lord came upon Jephte, and circuiting Galaad, and Manasses, Maspha also of Galaad, and thence passing to the children of Ammon,

30 he vowed a vow to our Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,

31 whosoever shalt first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me returning with peace from the children of Ammon, him will I offer an holocaust to our Lord.

32 And Jephte passed to the children of Ammon, to fight against them: whom our Lord delivered into his hands.

33 And he struck from Aroer till thou come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards, with a very great plague. And the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.

Judges 11:34-40

JEPHTHAH FULFILLS HIS VOW

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34 But Jephte returning into Maspha to his house, his only begotten daughter met him with timbrels and dances. For he had not other children. 3 notes

35 Whom when he saw, he rent his garments, and said: Woe is me my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to our Lord, and I can do no other thing. 3 notes

36 To whom she answered: My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to our Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, the revenge & victory of thine enemies being granted to thee. 3 notes

37 And she said to her father: This only grant me which I desire: Suffer me that two months I may go about the mountains, & bewail my virginity with my fellows. 3 notes

38 To whom he answered: Go. And he dismissed her two months. And when she was gone with her fellows and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains. 3 notes

39 And the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, who knew not man. Thence-forth a fashion in Israel, and a custom was kept: 3 notes

40 that after the compass of a year the daughters of Israel assemble together, and mourn the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite four days. 3 notes

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Judges 11:34-40 3 entries

JEPHTHAH FULFILLS HIS VOW

SCRIPTURE’S SILENCE PROVIDES MENTAL EXERCISE.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

The Scriptures do not seem to pass judgment on this vow and its fulfillment as it does quite clearly in the case of Abraham, when he was ordered to sacrifice his son and did so. Rather the Scriptures seem to have only recorded the matter and left it to the reader to evaluate, just as in the case of Judah, Jacob’s son, who in ignorance lay with his daughter-in-law but committed fornication by the very act, because he thought her to be a prostitute. The Scriptures never approve nor disapprove of the act explicitly but let the matter stand, to be evaluated and contemplated after consulting the right-eousness and law of God. Therefore, the Scriptures of God do not offer any comment in either the vow or its fulfillment, so that our mind might be put to work to pass judgment on this matter and so that we might now say that such a vow displeased God and led to the punishment that his only daughter, of all people, ran out to meet her father. QUESTIONS ON JUDGES 49.7.^[1]

Now comprehend, even if to a limited extent, the more spiritual sense of such sacrifices which cleanse those for whom they are offered; one must understand the sense of the sacrifice of the daughter of Jephthah who was offered as a burnt offering because of the vow of him who conquered the children of Ammon. She who was offered as a burnt offering consented to this vow, for, when her father said, I have opened my mouth to the Lord against you, she said to him, And if you have opened your mouth to the Lord against me, perform your vow.

Such accounts give an appearance of great cruelty to God to whom such sacrifices are offered for humanity’s salvation. We need a generous and perceptive spirit in order to refute the reproaches made against providence and, at the same time, to make a defense of all the sacrifices insofar as they are rather mysterious and beyond human nature.

Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.276-78

SACRIFICE AS SHADOW OF REALITY TO BE REVEALED.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

As regards to the fact that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to God as a whole burnt offering, these are the facts: he had vowed that if he were to obtain the victory, he would offer as a whole burnt offering whoever would come out of his house and meet him; because he had vowed this and won the battle and his daughter had been the one to meet him first, he fulfilled his vow. This event has become a great and rather difficult question to settle both for some who investigate the matter with piety and genuinely seek to know what this passage means and for some who out of ignorant impiety oppose the Holy Scriptures and call this a horrible misdeed that the God of the law and prophets would have delighted in sacrifices, yes, even human sacrifices. First let us reply to their calumnies by noting that the whole burnt offerings of cattle did not delight the God of the law and the prophets—or as I prefer to say, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What pleased God about those sacrifices was that they were full of meaning and a foreshadowing of future things. We, however, have the very substance which was foreshadowed by these sacrifices that he wished to commend to us. Moreover, there was also a very pertinent reason why those sacrifices have been changed so that they no longer are commanded but even forbidden: it is so that we may not think that God is pleased by such sacrifices according to some carnal passion.

Questions on Judges 49.1

A PIOUS SACRIFICE.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 333–397)

Never shall I be led to believe that the leader Jephthah made his vow otherwise than without thought, when he promised to offer to God whatever should meet him at the threshold of his house on his return. For he repented of his vow, as afterwards his daughter came to meet him. He tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, you have entangled me, you have become a source of trouble for me. And though with pious fear and reverence he took upon himself the bitter fulfillment of his cruel task, yet he ordered and left to be observed an annual period of grief and mourning for future times. It was a hard vow, but far more bitter was its fulfillment, while he who carried it out had the greatest cause to mourn. Thus it became a rule and a law in Israel from year to year, as it says: that the daughters of Israel went to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. I cannot blame the man for holding it necessary to fulfill his vow, but yet it was a wretched necessity which could only be solved by the death of his child. . . .

What, then, in the case of esteemed and learned people is full of marvel, that in the case of a virgin is found to be far more splendid, far more glorious, as she says to her sorrowing father, Do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth. But she asked for a delay of two months in order that she might go about with her companions upon the mountains to bewail fitly and dutifully her virginity now given up to death. The weeping of her companions did not move her, their grief did not prevail upon her, nor did their lamentations hold her back. She did not allow the day to pass, nor did the hour escape her notice. She returned to her father as though returning according to her own desire, and of her own will [she] urged him on when he was hesitating, and acted thus of her own free choice, so that what was at first an awful chance became a pious sacrifice. DUTIES OF THE CLERGY 3.12.78, 81.^[1]

Now clearly God loves and rewards those sacrifices when a just man endures injustice and struggles for the truth even to the point of death or when he is killed by enemies whom he has offended for righteousness’ sake, as he has returned them good for evil, that is, love instead of hatred. . . . In imitation of Abel, thousands of martyrs have struggled for the truth to the point of death and have been sacrificed by savage enemies. The Scripture says of them, God has tested them like gold in a furnace and he has accepted them as a whole burnt offering.^[2] So too the apostle says, I am being sacrificed.^[3]

But that is not how Jephthah made a whole burnt offering to the Lord out of his daughter. Rather he offered her as a literal sacrifice in the way that it was commanded for animals to be offered and forbidden for humans to be sacrificed. What he did seems rather similar to what Abraham did. In that instance the Lord gave him a special command that this ought to be done. He did not order him by way of a general commandment that such sacrifices should take place at some time. Indeed, the general rule prohibited it.

Questions on Judges 49.2-4