The Victory and the Vow

Jephthah at last is convinced that negotiation is useless and that battle must be joined. At this point, the Holy Spirit comes upon him and, after making a circuit of Gilead and Transjordanian Manasseh, perhaps to recruit troops, he advances toward the Ammonites. The point of Israel’s deliverance from oppression is at hand.

We now come to what must be acknowledged as one of the most perplexing and unsettling passages in all of Scripture, the story of Jephthah’s rash vow. As Matthew Henry says, “Jephthah’s vow is dark, and much in the clouds.” Though it is not difficult to understand just what Jephthah promises, we struggle to know why he promises it and exactly how he fulfills his vow. Before going into battle, we are told, Jephthah swears an oath to God. In it, he promises that if God will give him victory over the Ammonites, he will dedicate to God and sacrifice as a burnt offering “ ‘whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon.’ ” We must ask, first of all, why he felt the need to make such a vow at all. The Spirit of God was with him to confirm that he was God’s anointed deliverer. And yet, the text tells us of no explicit assurance of victory from God, such as Gideon received (Judg. 6:14, 16, 36–40; 7:7, 9, 14). Perhaps, then, he is seeking to bolster his faith here. But why such a rash vow, which could endanger anything or anyone? Some say he had in mind a particular animal, not a human. And yet, the word translated “whatever” here does not rule out a person. And, as we will see, Jephthah instantly recognizes that his daughter must be sacrificed when he encounters her upon his return (vv. 34–35). The mysteries are great here, and it would seem that we can say only that Jephthah, while possessing true faith and zeal (remember, he is in the hall of faith in Heb. 11), is also a deeply flawed man.

And yet, this man is God’s chosen instrument for the deliverance of His people at this moment of time, and He is pleased to give the Ammonites into his hand. Jephthah and the Israelites decimate the Ammonites with a great slaughter, shattering their oppression. The battle is won and Israel is delivered. But the account of the battle seems almost perfunctory as the author rushes ahead to tell his readers the outcome of Jephthah’s vow.