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Article JEPHTHAH'S VOW CONSIDERED. ← Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Jephthah's Vow Considered.
gratitude to God for so great a deliverance ; and is there not something of reproach , though amid deep sorrow , in Jtphthah ' s address to his daughter ? " Thou hast brought me very low , and thou art one of them that trouble me ; " as if he knew that she was aware of his vow and its nature , and had , without reference to its consequences , come boldly forward to meet him , with timbrels and dances ; thus presenting him with an opportunity of fulfilling his vowand evincing how hihlhe esti
, gy - mated the salvation of Israel from their enemies , by devoting as " most holy to Jehovah , " his only daughter and child . The translators of our Authorized Version , have inserted the word " if " in the above verse , and it is printed in italics , —there being no equivalent in the original for it . Suppose we reject it ; the verse would then read in a declaratory sense , "My father , thou hast opened thy mouth , c ] c- S $ c . " This at once confirms the idea of the previous knowlege of the father '
s vow by the daughter ; ag d from the usual practice of devotements under such circumstances , there is no reason to believe that this vow was made in a secret manner ; we cannot therefore feel much difficulty in sunposing that the fact was communicated to Jephthah ' s daughter , even before the victory was obtained- Her piety , and her attachment to her oppressed people now shine forth bri ghtly , and when her father returns , flushed with his victory , rejoicing in the deliverance of his countryshe hastens to meet
, him ivith demonstrations of joy , cheerfully resigning herself to the consequences of the vow , seeing that " the Lord had taken vengeance for her father , even ofthe children of Amman . It is said , that much of the sense of the whole transaction may be resolved into the interpretation of the word / li-in ? from the root T \ 1 T \
rendered in our version " to lament , " but in the marginal note , " to talk with ; " so that the whole transaction is to be viewed with reference to one or other of these two meanings . They who take a sacrificial view , prefer the rendering " to lament" while they who hold the opinion of devotement to perpetual virginity , would adhere to the expression " to talk with . " We do not think the above assertion consistent with reason ; had the root njJl been frequently used in the Bible , we might have
acceded to the proposition , but when we find it occurs but twice * in the Bible , once in Judges , c- 5 v . 11 , where it is rendered " rehearse , " and from the context evidently iu a thankful and joyful sense , " there shall they rehearse ( celebrate , magnify , laud ) the righteous acts ofthe Lord " It also occurs in the passage under discussion . Is it fair then to hinge the whole sense of this occurrence upon the rendering of a word , which , in the two onl y instances of its existence in the Bible , is translated so diametricall ? what be
y opposite For can more opposite than "to rehearse" with thankfulness the righteous acts of the Lord in delivering his people from their enemies , and "to lament" the daughter of Jephthah , evidently under the impression that she was immolated b y her father ? Now , as we trust we have succeeded in proving that the rendering of the verse containing the vow of Jephthah is inconsistent with the genius and spirit of the Hebrew language , we do not think that we propose anything unreasonable ; in offering to guide our interpretation of the word
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Jephthah's Vow Considered.
gratitude to God for so great a deliverance ; and is there not something of reproach , though amid deep sorrow , in Jtphthah ' s address to his daughter ? " Thou hast brought me very low , and thou art one of them that trouble me ; " as if he knew that she was aware of his vow and its nature , and had , without reference to its consequences , come boldly forward to meet him , with timbrels and dances ; thus presenting him with an opportunity of fulfilling his vowand evincing how hihlhe esti
, gy - mated the salvation of Israel from their enemies , by devoting as " most holy to Jehovah , " his only daughter and child . The translators of our Authorized Version , have inserted the word " if " in the above verse , and it is printed in italics , —there being no equivalent in the original for it . Suppose we reject it ; the verse would then read in a declaratory sense , "My father , thou hast opened thy mouth , c ] c- S $ c . " This at once confirms the idea of the previous knowlege of the father '
s vow by the daughter ; ag d from the usual practice of devotements under such circumstances , there is no reason to believe that this vow was made in a secret manner ; we cannot therefore feel much difficulty in sunposing that the fact was communicated to Jephthah ' s daughter , even before the victory was obtained- Her piety , and her attachment to her oppressed people now shine forth bri ghtly , and when her father returns , flushed with his victory , rejoicing in the deliverance of his countryshe hastens to meet
, him ivith demonstrations of joy , cheerfully resigning herself to the consequences of the vow , seeing that " the Lord had taken vengeance for her father , even ofthe children of Amman . It is said , that much of the sense of the whole transaction may be resolved into the interpretation of the word / li-in ? from the root T \ 1 T \
rendered in our version " to lament , " but in the marginal note , " to talk with ; " so that the whole transaction is to be viewed with reference to one or other of these two meanings . They who take a sacrificial view , prefer the rendering " to lament" while they who hold the opinion of devotement to perpetual virginity , would adhere to the expression " to talk with . " We do not think the above assertion consistent with reason ; had the root njJl been frequently used in the Bible , we might have
acceded to the proposition , but when we find it occurs but twice * in the Bible , once in Judges , c- 5 v . 11 , where it is rendered " rehearse , " and from the context evidently iu a thankful and joyful sense , " there shall they rehearse ( celebrate , magnify , laud ) the righteous acts ofthe Lord " It also occurs in the passage under discussion . Is it fair then to hinge the whole sense of this occurrence upon the rendering of a word , which , in the two onl y instances of its existence in the Bible , is translated so diametricall ? what be
y opposite For can more opposite than "to rehearse" with thankfulness the righteous acts of the Lord in delivering his people from their enemies , and "to lament" the daughter of Jephthah , evidently under the impression that she was immolated b y her father ? Now , as we trust we have succeeded in proving that the rendering of the verse containing the vow of Jephthah is inconsistent with the genius and spirit of the Hebrew language , we do not think that we propose anything unreasonable ; in offering to guide our interpretation of the word