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whoredom are equated elsewhere (Jer 5:7; both accept the words and actions of their
Hos 4:10). It had been predicted through respective judges.
Moses, “This people will rise up, and go a Israel said “Do to us” and Jephthah’s
whoring after the gods of the strangers of daughter said “Do to me”; she was about
the land ... and will forsake me, and break to bear the penalty for their sin.
my covenant which I have made with This unresolved tension – that God could
them” (Deu 31:16). As a result, the Lord do anything to Israel because of their sin,
sold them to their enemies (Jdg 10:7), an act and that their repentance awaited a deliv-
that echoes a bill of divorcement (Isa 50:1). erer – is resolved in Jephthah’s daughter. At
Their covenant unfaithfulness brings them first, they seem contradictory – Israel needs
into oppression, and it is only after a period a rescuer, but deserves death. How can God
of distress that they “put away the strange justify the guilty, in other words? However,
gods from among them” (Jdg 10:16). Jephthah’s daughter becomes the sacrifice,
However, the narrative doesn’t turn as the spiritual burnt offering, the one who
it usually does in the book of Judges. We forfeits her life by becoming a perpetual
expect a deliverer to be raised up immedi- virgin. She experiences the death that Is-
ately after repentance, but instead, unique rael deserved and, in paying their penalty,
in the Judges record, we read that the simultaneously provides rescue for them.
Lord’s “soul was grieved” (v16). The grief Sin is only ever removed on the basis of sac-
of God and repentance of the nation are rifice, and this is why Jephthah’s daughter
left hanging. We are left puzzling because dies in type. Jephthah’s daughter becomes
it does not follow the normal rebellion / the deliverer herself. In this act, she joins
repentance / rescue cycle of Judges. Achsah, Deborah, Jael and Manoah’s wife
Israel had also said, “Do thou unto us as heroines in the book of Judges.
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; de-
liver us only [from Ammon]” (v15). This Just as Jehovah grieved at the loss of
is an unresolved tension. Israel has said, the nation, Jephthah embodies that grief
“Do thou unto us,” but what exactly will in tearing his clothes at the loss of his
the Lord do? When Jephthah’s daughter daughter (11:35). His words “Thou hast
learned of her father’s vow, she said, “Do to brought me very low” (v35) are not his
me according to that which hath proceeded blaming his daughter, but an expression
out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD of pain and sorrow. Jephthah grieved the
hath taken vengeance for thee of thine loss of his darling daughter, just as God
enemies, even of the children of Ammon” was grieved at Israel. It is not the first time
(11:36). The word and concept links are that the judge on earth mirrors the Judge in
unmissable. Both say that the Judge is free heaven (cf. v27). Since Jephthah mirrors the
to do what He pleases – “do to me / us,” actions of the Lord so often in this narra-
based on victory over Ammon – “hath tive, he becomes a type of sorts. The judge
taken vengeance / deliver us only.” Israel on earth reflects the Judge in heaven. The
had given their word that the Lord could Judge in heaven, in order to deliver a harlot
do as He pleased in order to deliver them. nation, worked through his representative,
Jephthah’s daughter accepted the terms Jephthah, to offer up his virgin daughter
of the vow for the judge to do with her as as a sacrifice.
he had vowed. The harlot and the virgin To be continued …

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