Slaughtered Virgins

Did Jephthah sacrifice his one and only daughter? There are some who belive that Jepthah didn't actually go through with the act of sacrificing his daughter. Those who hold to that view believe that Jephthah only actually vowed his daughters virginity to the Lord (which would mean no marriage and no children) and not her physical life. I see several problems with this interpretation:

1. First, he makes a vow to burn up as a sacrifice whatever (or whoever) comes out of his house (Judges 11:30). So a plain rendering of the text finds Jephthah make the vow and to add to that he says, "I cannot take back my vow (Judges 11:35)." Then to make it even more crystal it says in Judges 11:39 that, "(he did with her) . . . according to the vow that he made." So it seems that common sense points to Jephthah following through with his tragic (and unneccesary vow).

2. Second, context is a great help when coming to exegetical conclusions. Someone who argues that Jephthah did not follow through with his vow is going against the natural regression of each Judge. Each Judge to some extent reveals more wickedness not righteousness. Those who argue that Jephthah didn't sacrifice the life of his daughther (but only consecrated her to the Lord as what ammount to a eunoch) argue along the lines that it doesn't seem clear enough (i.e., we don't see the blood on his hand). However, that's a very weak arguement especially when the logic of the text and regressional nature of each Judge points to this sacrificial abomination.

3. Third, there are going to be some who argue that Jephthah didn't sacrifice his daughter on the grounds of Hebrews 11:32, but if you look at the list of people in Hebrews 11 what you soon find is that the text is pointing out that people who have faith in God's promises are not without grievous sin.

So did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter? My conclusion is that he did. He was as most were in Israel in those days, "without a King and doing what was right in his own eyes." But there was grace for Jephthah and there is grace for us because another virgin was sacrificed; who was slaughtered on the altar of the Cross.