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Article JEPHTHAH'S VOW CONSIDERED. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Jephthah's Vow Considered.
Gth . On his return from the expedition in triumph , the daughter of Jephthah came forth to meet him . The comprehensive nature of his vow , in conjunction with its rashness , forcibly impressed him , and gave birth to feelings of regret and dismay . The daughter , however , respected the vow of the parent , and did not hesitate to submit to its conditions ; she only asked for a small interval , that she might bewail her lot with her companionswhich interval having elapsedshe
sub-, , mitted to the terms of the vow her father had made . 7 th . We find that the daughters of Israel went to lament the daughter of Jephthah four days in a year . We have thus a condensed statement of the leading circumstances of the transaction , we shall now proceed to investigate the question , as to whether Jephthah did or did not sacrifice his daughter ; whether she wasas some supposedactually slaughteredor simply deprived of her
, , , privilege as a daughter of Israel , by being kept in a state of perpetual virginity , a state so opposed to the feelings and wishes of the Hebrew women , that they , if we argue from their well-known dread of barrenness , considered it a living death . Let us first consider the terms or conditions of the vow . " If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands , then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to
meet me , when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , shall surely be the Lord ' s , and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering . " This is the statement of the authorized English version , the Vulgate and the Septuagint . How do these comport with the Hebrew ori ginal ? We are disposed to read the text differently , and subjoin our reasons in support of the alteration . In the first part of the vow a Hebrew idiom occursthat makes the literal translation appear peculiar to those
unac-, quainted with the Hebrew language . " And it shall be , that the comer forth that shall come forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , that it shall belong to the Lord , or I will offer him a burntoffering . "
" That it shall belong to the Lord . " ' The verb flTl he was , is frequently used in the Hebrew language with the prepositional prefix 7 to and a pronoun , to imply possession , as we see in Gen . xii . 16 , 1 p 21 1 KU ") b 'ITI " and he had sheep and oxen , " where we may read with equal propriety , " and there belonged ( lit . there was ) to him sheep and oxen . " We also find it used with the * ? prefixed
to a proper name , in Gen . xiii . 6 , ^ pn ] K _ i iTTI * * * D 177 DJll , which , rendered literally , and in the order of the Hebrew , is " And also to Lot belonged flocks and herds . " The term " shall belong to the Lord , " is more consistent with the genius of the original , and can scarcely be said to denote sacrifice . Nazarites may be said to belong to the Lord , and with reason . Samson was ordained to be a Nazarite to Godfrom the womb to the day of his
, death . Might not then the devotement of Jephthah ' s daughter be considered as a higher degree of Nazariteship , involving in its conditions perpetual virginity ? There is nothing inconsistent in this hypothesis , for we find that the vow to become a Nazarite , was open either to male or female . Jephthah knew this as a Hebrew , and the gist of his offence ( if there was any ) was , his devoting his daughter to perpetual virginity ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Jephthah's Vow Considered.
Gth . On his return from the expedition in triumph , the daughter of Jephthah came forth to meet him . The comprehensive nature of his vow , in conjunction with its rashness , forcibly impressed him , and gave birth to feelings of regret and dismay . The daughter , however , respected the vow of the parent , and did not hesitate to submit to its conditions ; she only asked for a small interval , that she might bewail her lot with her companionswhich interval having elapsedshe
sub-, , mitted to the terms of the vow her father had made . 7 th . We find that the daughters of Israel went to lament the daughter of Jephthah four days in a year . We have thus a condensed statement of the leading circumstances of the transaction , we shall now proceed to investigate the question , as to whether Jephthah did or did not sacrifice his daughter ; whether she wasas some supposedactually slaughteredor simply deprived of her
, , , privilege as a daughter of Israel , by being kept in a state of perpetual virginity , a state so opposed to the feelings and wishes of the Hebrew women , that they , if we argue from their well-known dread of barrenness , considered it a living death . Let us first consider the terms or conditions of the vow . " If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands , then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to
meet me , when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , shall surely be the Lord ' s , and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering . " This is the statement of the authorized English version , the Vulgate and the Septuagint . How do these comport with the Hebrew ori ginal ? We are disposed to read the text differently , and subjoin our reasons in support of the alteration . In the first part of the vow a Hebrew idiom occursthat makes the literal translation appear peculiar to those
unac-, quainted with the Hebrew language . " And it shall be , that the comer forth that shall come forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , that it shall belong to the Lord , or I will offer him a burntoffering . "
" That it shall belong to the Lord . " ' The verb flTl he was , is frequently used in the Hebrew language with the prepositional prefix 7 to and a pronoun , to imply possession , as we see in Gen . xii . 16 , 1 p 21 1 KU ") b 'ITI " and he had sheep and oxen , " where we may read with equal propriety , " and there belonged ( lit . there was ) to him sheep and oxen . " We also find it used with the * ? prefixed
to a proper name , in Gen . xiii . 6 , ^ pn ] K _ i iTTI * * * D 177 DJll , which , rendered literally , and in the order of the Hebrew , is " And also to Lot belonged flocks and herds . " The term " shall belong to the Lord , " is more consistent with the genius of the original , and can scarcely be said to denote sacrifice . Nazarites may be said to belong to the Lord , and with reason . Samson was ordained to be a Nazarite to Godfrom the womb to the day of his
, death . Might not then the devotement of Jephthah ' s daughter be considered as a higher degree of Nazariteship , involving in its conditions perpetual virginity ? There is nothing inconsistent in this hypothesis , for we find that the vow to become a Nazarite , was open either to male or female . Jephthah knew this as a Hebrew , and the gist of his offence ( if there was any ) was , his devoting his daughter to perpetual virginity ,