-
Articles/Ads
Article JEPHTHAH'S VOW CONSIDERED. Page 1 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Jephthah's Vow Considered.
JEPHTHAH'S VOW CONSIDERED .
BY J . S . KBDDELL , P . M . 181 . < Cm : c ! u
, two months " to bewail her virginity , " if she had considered for a moment that death would be her portion when she returned ? Is it not much more rational to suppose , that she contemplated that" living death " to which she was devoted , with the strong feelings of the women of her nation ? and that she reflected , with poignant sorrow , on the dreary prospect before her , of spending the remaindered her days in seclusion , debarred from induling the ardent hope so deeply cherished by every
g Jewish female , of seeing the Messiah born of her family ? We think this view of the subject sound , and can easily imagine that a celebration of this extraordinary transaction , should be instituted . The fact of a father having devoted his daughter to perpetual virginity , and thus depriving her of all prospect of what was dear to the anticipations of a Jewish maiden , and that daughter having resigned herself to her fathers vow with so much piety and filial obedience , were actions worthy to be
had in remembrance , the first to keep us ivithin due bounds while pledging ourselves , and the latter , to hand down to posterity , an example of that obedience to parents , so strongly inculcated in the Divine Law . The feelings of the maiden were highly wrought upon , when she beheld her
victorious father plunged from the height of exultation at his having freed his people from their enemies , into a paroxysm of grief when he beheld the subject of his vow in the person of his only daughter ; she saw his distress , and listened to his ejaculation , " I have opened my mouth ¦ unto the Lord , and I cannot go back , " determined her part without hesitation , and replied , " do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth . " She felt the necessity of extricating her beloved father from the difficulty in which he was placed ; on the oue hand stood his
only daughter , and on the other was his vow , pressing upon him with all the weight of a law , and echoing in his ears the words of the 28 tli verse of the 87 th chap , of Leviticus , " Notwithstanding no devoted thing , that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath , both of man and beast and of the field of his possession , shall be sold or redeemed , every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord . " Who will withhold from this noble-minded maiden , the attributes of piety and a high sense of
filial duty , in thus stepping in and freeing her father from so heavy an obligation , though at the expence of her foregoing all that was dear to her as a daughter of Israel . It is not improbable that Jephthah ' s daughter was acquainted with the vow her father had made ; and we offer this observation from au attentive perusal of the 36 th verse of the llth chap , of Judges , '' And she said unto himmy fatherif thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord
, , , do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth , forasmuch as the Lord huth taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies , even of the children of Amman . " We think the reference that Jephthah ' s daughter made to the victoiy of her father over the Ammonites , implies that she knew that her father had made the vow to mark his sense of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Jephthah's Vow Considered.
JEPHTHAH'S VOW CONSIDERED .
BY J . S . KBDDELL , P . M . 181 . < Cm : c ! u
, two months " to bewail her virginity , " if she had considered for a moment that death would be her portion when she returned ? Is it not much more rational to suppose , that she contemplated that" living death " to which she was devoted , with the strong feelings of the women of her nation ? and that she reflected , with poignant sorrow , on the dreary prospect before her , of spending the remaindered her days in seclusion , debarred from induling the ardent hope so deeply cherished by every
g Jewish female , of seeing the Messiah born of her family ? We think this view of the subject sound , and can easily imagine that a celebration of this extraordinary transaction , should be instituted . The fact of a father having devoted his daughter to perpetual virginity , and thus depriving her of all prospect of what was dear to the anticipations of a Jewish maiden , and that daughter having resigned herself to her fathers vow with so much piety and filial obedience , were actions worthy to be
had in remembrance , the first to keep us ivithin due bounds while pledging ourselves , and the latter , to hand down to posterity , an example of that obedience to parents , so strongly inculcated in the Divine Law . The feelings of the maiden were highly wrought upon , when she beheld her
victorious father plunged from the height of exultation at his having freed his people from their enemies , into a paroxysm of grief when he beheld the subject of his vow in the person of his only daughter ; she saw his distress , and listened to his ejaculation , " I have opened my mouth ¦ unto the Lord , and I cannot go back , " determined her part without hesitation , and replied , " do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth . " She felt the necessity of extricating her beloved father from the difficulty in which he was placed ; on the oue hand stood his
only daughter , and on the other was his vow , pressing upon him with all the weight of a law , and echoing in his ears the words of the 28 tli verse of the 87 th chap , of Leviticus , " Notwithstanding no devoted thing , that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath , both of man and beast and of the field of his possession , shall be sold or redeemed , every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord . " Who will withhold from this noble-minded maiden , the attributes of piety and a high sense of
filial duty , in thus stepping in and freeing her father from so heavy an obligation , though at the expence of her foregoing all that was dear to her as a daughter of Israel . It is not improbable that Jephthah ' s daughter was acquainted with the vow her father had made ; and we offer this observation from au attentive perusal of the 36 th verse of the llth chap , of Judges , '' And she said unto himmy fatherif thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord
, , , do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth , forasmuch as the Lord huth taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies , even of the children of Amman . " We think the reference that Jephthah ' s daughter made to the victoiy of her father over the Ammonites , implies that she knew that her father had made the vow to mark his sense of