AThornquist
Puritan Board Doctor
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord that if He gave the Ammonites into his hands he would take whoever greeted him from his house and sacrifice him or her to the Lord. And then Judges 11:34-40 reads this way:
I am confused about this. She and her companions wept about her virginity? The most logical conclusion I have is that motherhood and a heritage were valued far more at that time than they are today. Thus, she died without the opportunity to have children, which would be tragic to them. Is this a correct interpretation? I have a hard time concluding that they wept just because she wasn't able to be with a man. I mean, with the time frame of two months, she could conceivably get married, no longer be a virgin, and die with her life fulfilled -- IF sex is the issue.
What do you think?
34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36 And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37 So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel 40 that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
I am confused about this. She and her companions wept about her virginity? The most logical conclusion I have is that motherhood and a heritage were valued far more at that time than they are today. Thus, she died without the opportunity to have children, which would be tragic to them. Is this a correct interpretation? I have a hard time concluding that they wept just because she wasn't able to be with a man. I mean, with the time frame of two months, she could conceivably get married, no longer be a virgin, and die with her life fulfilled -- IF sex is the issue.
What do you think?