The Jephthah's daughter Bible story in Judges 11 has puzzled scholars and believers for centuries, raising difficult questions about faith, sacrifice, and the nature of biblical narrative. In this episode, hosts Catherine Shifreder and Katie Langston welcome back Dennis Olson, Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and author of the New Interpreter Commentary on Judges, to explore this controversial passage. The discussion centers on whether Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter or dedicated her to lifelong service to God, examining the ambiguous Hebrew text and the various interpretive traditions that have emerged over time.

Professor Olson provides crucial context for understanding this Jephthah's daughter Bible story, including Jephthah's background as an outcast turned judge, his negotiations with the Ammonites, and the significance of his vow in light of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him. The conversation explores how this narrative fits into the larger theme of moral decline in Judges, where "everyone did what was right in their own eyes," and draws parallels to other biblical stories including Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac and Saul's vow regarding Jonathan. Through scholarly analysis and thoughtful discussion, this episode demonstrates that not every story in the Bible serves as a moral example, but rather some narratives function as cautionary tales about the dangers of acting without community wisdom and divine guidance.

Welcome to the Enter the Bible podcast where you can get answers or at least reflections on everything you wanted to know about the Bible but were afraid to ask. I'm Kathryn Schifferdecker

I am Katie Langston, and today on the podcast, we are delighted to welcome back a wonderful guest. This is Dennis Olson. He is the professor of Old Testament theology emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and is an author of the New Interpreter Commentary on the Book of Judges, which is wonderful because we have a question from the Book of Judges today on the podcast. So welcome, Dennis. We're so glad you're with us.

Thank you, good to be with you.

Yes, and like I was saying, this is a listener submitted question. The listener who submitted the question may or may not have been me. Because I was reading in judges a few months back and came across this very strange story in judges 11 that I felt like I just could not make heads or tails of. So of course, dear listener.

So this is my question.

If you would like to submit a question, you may also do so at enterthebible.org. You just click on the button that says ask a question. There's a form. It's easy and ⁓ simple to fill out and we get to as many of these as we can. But my question was, did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter in Judges 11? And there was this weird story where somehow he was like in a battle or something.

he'd made a vow that if God helped him, you know, he would offer a burnt offering of the first living creature to greet him after returning home victorious. And then it was his daughter who came through the door. then he decided he needed to go through with it. And she was sad because she was going to die a virgin. what? What?

You've got to just let him off the hook and been like, look, you know, if it were a goat, yeah, if it were a sheep, then we would have sacrificed that. you know, your human child, no. What? What's happening in that story? I was very perplexed.

Yes, well, that's a great question, Katie, because interpreters and commentators on this story have been perplexed for centuries and debated exactly what happened and whether the vow that Jephthah made was a good thing or not, ⁓ whether Jephthah's daughter was actually sacrificed or not. So there are a number of gaps in the story. so commentators fill those gaps in various kinds of ways. it's...

and they're all sort of possible. So I mean, I think one way to begin to think about the story is to try to figure out how is Jephthah being portrayed as a positive character, just being really faithful or a more negative character, that this was a foolish file that he made and that he carried through on it, if he carried through on it or not. So I think it's just good to back up a little bit in the story. So.

The Ammonites are the enemies who are attacking the Israelites in this phase of the Judge Cycle. And Jephthah happens to be one of many other brothers of a certain family from Gilead and the father's Gilead. And Jephthah happens to be the product of his father Gilead and a prostitute. So he was born of the prostitute. that's...

begins the story and just gives a little ⁓ color to who Jephthah might be or whatever. And as a Jephthah was kicked out of his family by his other brothers because you're not really one of us, you're just a half brother. And so they would not allow him to inherit their father's inheritance. So he was kicked out and the text says that he gathered a few nasty people around him and they went on raids. So they're stealing, so...

Again, I'm sort of negative. Not the most-

So he's not a stalwart

member of the community.

So that begins to set up the lens by which we as readers begin to read Jephthah's story. But then the Ammonites come and ⁓ Jephthah proves himself to be, know, ⁓ I mean, he's almost ⁓ what we might call the gang member, a warlord kind of.

I do remember that, yeah.

person. so he's adept at that. And so the brothers and the other leaders of the community come to Jephthah and say, we're in big trouble. We have these Ammonites that are fighting against us. Would you please sort of rule over us and lead us in battle against the Ammonites? Because we know you're a good fighter. So Jephthah says, okay. But then interestingly invites them.

to take a vow, and the vow is, if I'm successful in fighting the Ammonites, then I will rule over you. And so they say, okay, we're in a tough situation, so yeah, you can rule over us if you're victorious in that kind of way. So it's interesting that Jephthah's willing and invites this vow by these rulers of Gilead.

And so just keep that in mind. So he's someone who makes vows, do some things, and that will come up again. So then the story continues and Jephthah goes to the Ammonite king and say, can we talk about this and maybe negotiate this, ⁓ the terms and do you have to be always attacking us and can we get along? ⁓ And the Ammonite king says, no, no, you've sort of stolen some of

the term.

the land that belongs to us, it's sort of marginal, maybe belonged to Moab. So there's some dispute about to whom it belongs. And Jephthah goes through a long litany telling of what Israel did coming into the land. And so seems to know the story of the Israelite sort of coming into the land. The Ammonite King says, no, no, we're going to attack you. what it shows is that Jephthah is willing to negotiate with the Ammonites that are there.

So that's also part of the background along the way. And then as they are going to enter into the wars, when the vow is made by Jephthah, and right before the sentence before he makes the vow, ⁓ the text says that the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. then Jephthah makes the vow, which is that whatever comes out of my house, if I'm

victorious against the Ammonites, I will, and this is really crucial, there's two parts to it. ⁓ will dedicate to the Lord and I will offer up as a sacrifice. And so one can read that in the plain sense as God, that Jephthah would dedicate, presumably he was thinking maybe an animal of some kind, a goat or whatever, but it's ⁓

It's ambiguous in the Hebrew, it's whatever, so it could be animal and it could be a human or whatever. Right. And makes that vow that I'll offer that up. But in the history of interpretation and beginning in Jewish interpretation, then taken over by also Christian interpreters, it is possible in the Hebrew to read the and as an or, which means I will offer, I will dedicate to God whatever comes out of my house or

I will offer as a sacrifice and kill that as a sacrifice. Okay. Because interpreters were troubled by this vow and some wanted to make Jephthah, he's a judge and so he should be a positive person. He delivered Israel from the Ammonites and so forth. And what's interesting as you read through the story, it never actually says that Jephthah sacrificed or killed his daughter.

It just says, Jephthah did according to the vow that he had made. So that allows the option, if you read it as an or rather than an and, that perhaps then she was dedicated. And they also would look at the phrase that Jephthah's daughter hears what the vow is. comes home from war, she comes out.

dancing and celebrating that father is coming back and he had been victorious. And this is a common motif of the women coming out of the home and welcoming the victorious soldiers back home and dancing and celebrating the victory. And so that's what Jephthah's daughter was doing. But when Jephthah sees her, he becomes very despondent. And it's sort of hard to hear this, that

The father says to the daughter, brought great pain on me.

You got it on yourself. Right. so again, that sort of colors how I mean, I think a typical father, I made this terrible mistake. I'm the one who did this, but he doesn't confess that at all. But he is despondent about this. It's his only child. So this is ⁓ the only child he has. So he's despondent about that. But he says, I have to do.

Right.

what I've said I did, I would do in the vow. ⁓

She

takes some time, right?

Yes, yes.

She's

sad because she's a virgin. Yes. That's why she's sad.

to mourn her virginity. Yeah. Her virginity. That's her heart. That's her heart. But, and in the history, particularly in Christian interpretation, if she was not killed, but if Jephthah dedicated her to God for her lifetime as a virgin, then she becomes, in a sense, a model for nuns and heads.

Yes.

Women who dedicate themselves to life, dedication to God in that kind of way. I mean, there's an interesting oratorio with George Friedrich Handel's Jepse. He writes this historical oratorio, which retells the story of Jepse and Jepse's daughter. And what he introduces a few other characters, one of which is the wife of Jepse.

⁓ when Jephthah comes home victorious and then reveals the vow that he had made to God, Jephthah's wife basically said, you idiot. Why did you do that?

⁓ Good for a handle.

Yeah,

no, he said, this is not happening here. Anne also introduces Hamor, another character who is the beloved of Jephthah's daughter. And he says, I'll substitute myself for her. Don't kill her. But then along comes an angel in the oratorio who says ⁓ that, no, this will not happen. This is against the law of God that...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

you would kill a child, your parent would kill child, and so as result, ⁓ she will be dedicated ⁓ forever as a virgin to serve God. is bad news for Hamor in one sense.

What

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly. She's given a name, Isis, which is related to Iphigenia, which is out of the Greek mythology of a daughter who was sacrificed to save the nation of Troy in a battle. And so it's sort of an echo of that. So she's portrayed as then a very pious daughter who is willing

to sacrifice being married at least and then dedicating herself to the service of God. But I guess in terms of the actual biblical text and whether it happened or not, I mean, I think the plain sense of the text was that it was, she was sacrificed. think the larger biblical witness would sort of bring a sort of negative verdict about that, in part because it has echoes to Genesis 22 and Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac.

which was done in obedience, but then stopped by the angel. It's also the case that Jephthah is willing to negotiate with the king of the Ammonites, but doesn't negotiate with God. So why doesn't he make that? And then in terms of the whole book of Judges, one can see a kind of

gradual decline and disintegration and quality of the judges and Jephthah is at the lower end of that spectrum, which also suggests this is quite negative in that kind of way. I guess on those fronts, I would say the story does suggest that she is killed and sad as a sacrifice, but it reflects very negatively on Jephthah and that was a foolish vow to make.

Part of the, as I mentioned, that Jepsa had forced the Gileadites to make a vow that he would become a ruler over them. wonder about the psychology of have to go through with this vow that I've made about my daughter so that Gileadites don't go back on

time there Val.

That's

right. there are all kinds of interesting angles to this, possibilities within the story that maybe not. And so a really interesting history of interpretation of that.

think that's all that's really helpful, Dennis, that yeah, I'd forgotten some of those details about the backstory of Jephthah. But I think the larger point here is just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean that God approves of any of, you know, just because a particular story or action is in the Bible doesn't mean that God approves of it.

Super helpful.

Exactly,

or that it's a model necessarily. That's why you've got to look at the sort of larger narrative and the larger book even and where it fits in that flow. Now the one complicating text actually is Hebrews 11 in which...

Right, right, right, right.

Jeff

the in- Yes! Is your name there? I forgot about-

Yeah, I forgot that.

It's

this catalog of all the great heroes of faith in the Old Testament, know, Moses and Abraham and the like. And then he lists these specific judges and Jephthah, a few of them, not all of the judges, but a few of them, and Jephthah is among that. And so many Christian interpreters felt constrained, well, we've got to make this person look good, fit with that, Hebrews 11 sort of...

assignment of him as some hero of faith. So that also constrained some of the interpreters as well.

Yeah. I wonder if you could talk a bit about the ending of Judges, Dennis. And I know we're going to be doing another podcast with you about the whole book, but I think it's pertinent here too that there's a kind of judgment statement at the end of the book of Judges about the actions that have been portrayed there.

Yes. yeah. There's a refrain at the end of Judges. As I said, there's a kind of decline, a disintegration among the judges and among the sort of both religious and social life of the Israelite tribes and the inner fighting and the like. so, and even with Jephthah, you have some infighting with some of the other Israelite tribes. You know, to the Ephraimites, he says, why weren't you sort of behind us? didn't.

join us in fighting the Ammonites. they smooth it out eventually, but it's another sort of view that things are starting to fall apart a bit along the way. But there's a refrain at the end of the book of Judges that everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. There was no king in the land. people were doing things and kind of on their own and losing the moorings of what their faith and their God would have wanted. So that's, think,

Crucial kind of peace.

They're making up their own weird vows.

Yeah, yeah, ⁓ exactly. That's right. And I think, you know, the crucial thing is about the spirit of Lord came upon Jephthah. That should have been enough. Jephthah said, okay, I'm good to go. I don't need to make a vow, right, to sort of force God's hand to bring victory or something. But he already had the spirit and should have trusted that and gone in and not failed. He had to add to that in some way.

I'm it.

with his own bow.

think that that refrain that everybody did what was right in their own eyes is certainly a word of judgment on everything that's come before, right, in the whole book of judges. as you say, there's a kind of decline, a strong decline from Deborah in the beginning to the end. I also think, you know, in the larger canon, right, to go back to my teacher, Childs, right, there's this kind of judgment. There's this story, a somewhat similar story in 1 Samuel,

what is it, first Samuel 14, where Saul makes a vow, right? King Saul is fighting and he says, he says, you know, that my soldiers, none of them should taste a morsel of food until the victory is won or until the sun sets. And his son, Jonathan, like dips, just, it has a little bit of honey, right? And tastes it.

Because he didn't hear the vial. didn't hear the vial that his father, exactly.

And then Saul's going to go through with his vow and, you know, kill or have Jonathan killed his own son. But it's the community around, right? That's fellow soldiers who say, you know, God forbid that you should do such a thing. Right?

forgot about that. So I just read that because that's where I'm at right now. And so I just kind of read that. And yeah, that's an interesting parallel to this one. There's no community for Jeptha to be like, hey, that's a bad.

So it's like

That's a bad plan.

Yeah, that's right.

When you said living creature, meant a critter? You didn't mean a human? ⁓

Cri-

Time out. No, that's right. And it's the community that knew what was right and wrong. It wasn't just an individual saying, is the way to do it, but it was a community that says, no, no, this is not what we Israelites do. not what our God would want to happen. And Genesis 22, the near sacrifice of Isaac, also suggests that's not the thing that God needs.

We don't sacrifice children

or children. That's not what we do.

And in Deuteronomy there's a law about, you know, about that's what other people do.

What we do. Interesting.

Yeah.

So there's a kind of forgetfulness or carelessness or something on the part of Jephthah. ⁓

Yeah.

his community, I think. And his community.

Yeah. Well, you've shed a lot of light on this story. We really appreciate that, Dennis. It's one of those texts of terror. It's been called, I think my colleague and friend Diane Jacobson said it. It's not so much a text of terror as a text about terror, which is...

I think an interesting way of thinking about it or a helpful way to think about it. But yeah, the larger point again being just because the story is in the Bible doesn't mean that we're to hold it up as a moral example of what we should do.

Exactly.

Thank you. That was helpful. you, Dennis.

You're welcome. Thanks for the question.

Yeah.

It was a good question, Well, thank you to our listeners and viewers for being with us in this episode of the Enter the Bible podcast. We hope it's been insightful. We urge you to go to enterthebible.org to get more podcasts, courses, commentaries, resources, videos, reflections, blog posts.

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