Here in this chapter 11 comes a story which brings lots of argument. The vow and sacrifice of Jephthah. Jephthah made a foolish vow to offer a burnt offering of whatever comes to meet him at his house if God delivered the children of Ammon into his hands. Afterward, Jephthah’s daughter comes out to meet him. Scriptures say that Jephthah keeps his vow. The arguments start with if he really killed his daughter, and why did God accept this.
As far as the arguments on whether Jephthah’s daughter was killed or keep a perpetual virgin (which was nearly a death to a woman of that time and meant the end of Jephthah’s line) both actions are wrong. The real argument is God’s involvement in it. I would note, we don’t see Jephthah calling out to God for forgiveness because of his foolish vow, which I believe God would have answered, “Don’t harm the child.”
First, it was God’s plan to deliver Israel, so Jephthah did not need to bribe God. This looks little more than the attitude of the pagans which surrounded them, offer the god a promise and if they do it pay up. However, God is never bribed. God offers promises and conditions, but He is never bribed into doing something he doesn’t plan on doing. I would note that Jephthah isn’t the last person to do this in the Bible, but it doesn’t make it right.
Second. from what we see in the law God absolutely forbade human sacrifice. Jephthah may have been trying to please God, but this sacrifice was as “Josephus says, neither "conformably to the law, nor acceptable to God.’”[1] This is not recorded as an example of doing the right thing, but life as it really was flawed and here I use the term reprehensible. This is an example of what we should NOT be doing.
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