Jephthah’s Daughter

Judges 11:30-31, 34-35, 39-40
This rendering and this interpretation is warranted by the Levitical Law about vows consisted of two parts.
1. That what person soever met him should be the L-rd's or be dedicated to His service;
2. That what beast soever met him, if clean, should be offered up for a burnt-offering unto the L-rd.
G-d did NOT accept human sacrifice. Jephthah makes a rash vow, I will offer it for a burnt offering; that is, if it is what according to the Law may be offered up, as an ox, sheep, ram, or lamb; some read the words disjunctively. "Or I will offer it"… it shall either be devoted to the L-rd in the manner that persons or things, according to the Law, are directed to be. (Human sacrifice was strictly forbidden by the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 12:31.) Human sacrifices were ever an abomination to the L-rd; and this was one of the grand reasons why G-d drove out the Canaanites. “I will consecrate it to the L-rd, or I will offer it for a burnt-offering; that is, "If it be a thing fit for a burnt-offering, it shall be made one, if fit for the service of G-d, it shall be consecrated to him."
From Judges 11:39 appears evident that Jephthah's daughter was not SACRIFICED to
G-d, Jephthah set his daughter aside for the Tabernacle service according to the principle of Leviticus 27:2-4, Exodus 38:8; 1 Samuel 2:22 where persons set apart to G-d in a vow are not required to be sacrificed (as animals were), but were "given" to the Tabernacle in monetary value.
His daughters, and her friends, are rightly sorrowful that she would be given to the Tabernacle service before she was ever married; probably, most the women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle were older widows (however, there would have been much more to bewail if she was killed!)
By sending his unmarried, only daughter to the service of the Tabernacle for the rest of her life, it shows how seriously both Jephthah and his daughter took his promise to G-d.
Her father's extreme grief on the occasion and her requisition of a respite for two months to bewail her virginity, are both perfectly natural. Having no other issue, he could only look forward to the extinction of his name or family. A state of celibacy, which is reproachful among women everywhere, was peculiarly so among the Israelites, and was therefore no ordinary sacrifice on her part, who, though she generously gave up, could not but regret the loss of, becoming ‘the mother of the promised Messiah’ or at least a mother in Israel. And he did with her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man, or remained a virgin, all her life.
Those who assert that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter, attempt to justify the opinion from the barbarous usages of those times: but in answer to this it may be justly observed, that Jephthah was now under the influence of the Spirit of G-d, Judges 11:29. That Spirit could not permit him to imbrue his hands in the blood of his own child; and especially under the pretence of offering a pleasing sacrifice to that G-d who is the Father of mankind, and the Fountain of love, mercy, and compassion.
Vows were in common practice also among the Israelites. They were encouraged by the divine approval as emanating from a spirit of piety and gratitude; and rules were laid down in the Law for regulating the performance. But it is difficult to bring Jephthah's vow within the legitimate range (Lev. 27:28).
Whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me-- contemplated a human sacrifice? Bred up as he had been, beyond the Jordan, where the Israelitish tribes, far from the Tabernacle, were looser in their religious sentiments. With him living latterly on the borders of a heathen country where such sacrifices were common, it is not unlikely that he may have been so ignorant as to imagine that a similar immolation would be acceptable to G-d. His mind, engrossed with the prospect of a contest, on the issue of which the fate of his country depended, might, through the influence of superstition, consider the dedication of the object dearest to him the most likely to ensure success.
Shall surely be the L-rd's; and or I will offer it up for a burnt offering-- introduces the important alternative, that if it were a person, the dedication would be made to the service of the Sanctuary; if a proper animal or thing, it would be offered on the altar.
Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances--The return of the victors was hailed, as usual, by the joyous acclaim of a female band (1 Sam. 18:6), the leader of whom was Jephthah's daughter. The vow was full in his mind, and it is evident that it had not been communicated to anyone; otherwise, precautions would doubtless have been taken to place another object at his door. The scream, and other accompaniments of irrepressible grief, seems to indicate that her life was to be forfeited as a sacrifice; the nature of the sacrifice (which was abhorrent to the character of G-d) and distance from the Tabernacle does not suffice to overturn this view, which the language and whole strain of the narrative plainly support. The lapse of two months might be supposed to have afforded time for reflection, and a better sense of his duty, there is but too much reason to conclude that he was driven to the fulfillment by the dictates of a pious but unenlightened conscience.
The Targumist refers here to the Law, Leviticus 27:1-5, where the L-rd prescribes the price at which either males or females, who had been vowed to the L-rd, might be redeemed. "When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the L-rd at thy judgment. the male from twenty years old even unto sixty, shall be fifty shekels of silver; and if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels; and from five years old unto twenty years, the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten." This also is an argument that the daughter of Jephthah was not sacrificed; as the father had it in his power, at a very moderate price, to have redeemed her: and surely, the blood of his daughter must have been of more value in his sight than thirty shekels of silver.
And she said unto him--what a pattern of filial piety and obedience! She was at once obedient, pious, and patriotic. A woman to have no offspring was considered to be in a state of the utmost degradation among the Hebrews; but she is regardless of all this, seeing her father is in safety, and her country delivered. And her going up and down upon the mountains may signify no more than her paying each of them a visit at their own houses, previously to her being shut up at the Tabernacle; and this visiting of each at their own home might require the space of two months.
To lament the daughter of Jephthah--but this custom prevailed in Israel that the virgins of Israel went at different times, four days in the year, to the daughter of Jephthah, that they might comfort her. This verse also gives evidence that the daughter of Jephthah was not sacrificed: nor does it appear that the custom or statute referred to here lasted after the death of Jephthah's daughter.
The neder, or vow, in general, included either persons, beasts, or things dedicated to the L-rd for pious uses; which, if it was a simple vow, was redeemable at certain prices. If the person repented of his vow, and wished to commute it for money, according to the age or sex of the person, Leviticus 27:1-8: this was a wise regulation to remedy rash vows. But if the vow was accompanied with cherem, devotement, it was irredeemable, as in the following case, Leviticus 27:28.
"Notwithstanding, no devotement which a man shall devote unto the L-rd, (either) of man, or beast, or of land of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Every thing devoted is most holy to the L-rd.”
The Mischna, or traditional Law of the Jews is pointedly against it; 'If a Jew should devote his son or daughter, his man or maid servant, who are Hebrews, the devotement would be void, because no man can devote what is not his own, or whose life he has not the absolute disposal of.' These arguments appear to be decisive against the sacrifice. Jephthah could not have devoted his daughter to celibacy against her will is evident from the history and from the high estimation in which she was always held by the daughters of Israel for her filial duty and her hapless fate, which they celebrated by a regular anniversary commemoration four days in the year.
Several of the rabbis, and many very learned Christian expositors, believe that Jephthah's daughter was not really sacrificed, but that her virginity was consecrated to G-d, and that she separated from all connection with the world, she knew no man. This was a kind of mysterious death, because it caused her to lose all hope of the glory of a posterity from which the Messiah might descend. From this originated the custom, observed afterwards in Israel, that on a certain season in the year the virgins assembled themselves on the mountains to bewail the daughter of Jephthah for the space of four days.
Yet, we can't deny that this vow is foolish nonetheless; the important thing is to be in the will of G-d yourself, not to make vows to try to get G-d "on your side."