|
The story of Jepthah may be an object lesson about rash vows (although possibly not). Jepthah was judge of Gilead, much as Samson was judge of Dan. He was an Israelite commander in the wars against the Ammonites. His story is told in Judges chapter 11.
He made a vow that "whoever comes first from the door of my house when I return victorious shall belong to the Lord and I will render a burnt offering". Apparently he made this vow under divine inspiration. The vow suggests that he expected a person to come out of his house, as indoor housepets were unlikely in that culture. The first person who came out to meet him was his daughter.
Now it must be said that, in the original Hebrew, although Jepthah promised to dedicate that person to God, he did not explicitly say that he would make a burnt offering of that person. It may be plausibly suggested that he promised only to dedicate his daughter, for the rest of her natural lifespan, to the Lord ... apparently as a sort of nun, much as Samson had been dedicated as a nazarite by his parents, which additionally meant that, she being his only child, Jepthah's family line died out for lack of grandchildren which was a great disappointment in that culture. The burnt offering he made on her behalf was presumably an animal suitable for sacrifice.
The women's auxiliary of the Masons has a ritual pantomime of this story (on the common assumption that the girl was killed as a sacrifice).
|