JU11-11: Jephthah Did NOT Have An Animal In Mind When He Made His Tragic Vow

“Yiftach made a vow to Adonai: ‘If you will hand the people of ‘Amon over to me, then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of ‘Amon will belong to Adonai; I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.'”-Judges 11:30

Alrighty it’s time to get into the meat of the story concerning the tragic vow Yiftach made.

However, before we get into it, let me ask you a quick question.

In investigating this controversial story including finding the answer to the question of did Yiftach really kill his daughter or not, what should we rely on?

Should we depend on our own flawed feelings and opinions on the matter?

Or should we listen to the countless doctrines the Christian denominations have created over the centuries?

Well, the answer to that question is of course we should go to the Word.

But that answer in and of itself is insufficient because that’s what every pastor, preacher and Bible teacher does when he or she attempts to formulate an opinion on a Scriptural matter.

So the better answer to the question is…

“Of course we should go to the Word, but most importantly we should go to the ORIGINAL HEBREW”.

So with that in mind, let’s take a good look at verse 31. 

“…then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of ‘Amon will belong to Adonai; I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

First, let’s take a good look at the word “whatever” because if the truth be told, that’s a really bad translation.

The reason why it’s bad is because the word “whatever” reflects what the translator thought was in Jephthah’s mind when he made that vow.

What does the word “whatever” mean in plain simple English?

In this context, “whatever” could be referring to any type of living organism that came walking, crawling, running or even flying out of Yiftach’s front door when he returned.

In other words, it could have been a beast or a human.

However, the Hebrew word normally translated into “whatever” or “whatsoever” here is ASHER.

And this word can only mean “whoever”.

In other words, based on the original Hebrew here, Yiftach definitely had a human sacrifice in mind when he said his vow.

And no this ain’t just semantic homies and no I’m not slicing the onion too thin.

It’s basic and fundamental grammar that the word “what” refers to an “it” and the word “who” can only refer to human beings.

We don’t go around referring to animals as “who” and we don’t refer to humans as “it” and this same rule applies in the Hebrew language as well…I would say even more so because humans are created in God’s image.

So let me restate the conclusion I just reached for the record.

When Yiftach made his vow and said he would sacrifice “whatever” came out to greet him, he was thinking of a human, NOT some farm animal.

In other words, verse 31 should be correctly translated as…

“then WHOEVER comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of ‘Amon will belong to Adonai; I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering”.

So we can throw into the trash can the typical Christian interpretation that Jephthah really had an animal in mind when he made his vow.

Yeah man, I’m telling you to throw that Christian interpretation into the trash, you have my permission.

And to add even more ammunition to what I just declared, EVEN IF Yiftach was thinking about a 4-legged or possibly winged creature in mind when he made his vow, there’s another reason why the typical Christian interpretation is bogus.

Back in those days, inside a normal Hebrew household, BOTH clean and unclean animals lived together.

For example, an unclean animal like a dog or cat could be found frolicking together and mingling with the cattle, goats and sheep.

So when Yiftach returned home from battle, which do you think was more probable?

That a dog would come running out to meet him?

Or that one of his cattle would start mooing in delight and head out to the front door to welcome Yiftach.

Some sneaky folks will try to get around the dilemma I just posed by saying Yiftach had surrendered the matter to God and it would be up to the Lord to determine what type of beast would come strolling through the front door to be sacrificed.

Yeah, yeah, that’s just a cop out answer.

Saying the matter was “left up to God’s Will” is an excuse everyone and most anyone will conveniently use to get out of answering difficult questions.

Anyways, it doesn’t matter because the original Hebrew word ASHER is our answer.

That’s right homies.

Because the word ASHER is used, I’m telling you our argument is air tight and you can rely on it.

Jephthah did NOT…and I repeat DID NOT…have either a clean or unclean animal in mind when he made that vow.

He had a person in mind.

Which leads us to the next question, if he did have a human being in mind, then who?

The ancient Jewish sages give us a good answer to that question.

They say that Yiftach was probably thinking one of his servants or household slaves would come out to greet him.

This makes sense because in those days it was normal that the main house servant would rush out to meet the master of house when he returned from a hard day’s work.

The house servant would greet him, wash his feet and then give him some food and drink he had already prepared.

This was a basic and customary part of his job and if he failed in that duty it was considered highly offensive to the master and the servant would be punished.

Now I can imagine some folks objecting by saying there’s no way Yiftach would have been thinking of sacrificing his chief servant because then it would be too much trouble to replace him.

Or that it was unnecessarily cruel.

My response is stop projecting man.

You’re projecting your own subjective ideas about morality and the way things should be from a 21st century perspective that is as far removed from the Biblical era as the planet Mars is from the cockroach I killed in my kitchen the other day.

Keep in mind this was a time when it was considered honorable for a man to sacrifice his own daughters to be raped by sex hungry intruders rather than offer up his house guests who the intruders really wanted to have sex with (I’m referring to the story of Lot and the gang of homosexual gangsters who came pounding on his door one night).

So let’s stop here.

Oh, and that’s your takeaway for today.

Just know that Jephthah was NOT thinking of an animal of any kind when he made his vow.

Over and out.