Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jephthah, the ninth Judge of Israel, is constituted by the people. He first deals rationally with the king of Ammon, that he might cease from the invasion of Israel, but in vain. Therefore (verse 29), the Spirit of God rushing upon him, he summons the Israelites to war and makes a vow that if he returns victorious, he will sacrifice to God whoever first comes to meet him from his house. To the victor returning, his daughter comes to meet him; therefore he sacrifices her to God, as one bound by his vow.
Vulgate Text: Judges 11:1-40
1. There was at that time Jephthah the Gileadite, a most valiant man and a warrior, the son of a harlot, who was born of Gilead. 2. Now Gilead had a wife from whom he had sons, who, after they had grown up, cast out Jephthah, saying: You cannot be an heir in the house of our father, because you were born of another mother. 3. Fleeing and avoiding them, he dwelt in the land of Tob; and there gathered to him men who were destitute and given to brigandage, and they followed him as a prince. 4. In those days the children of Ammon were fighting against Israel. 5. When they were pressing hard, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob to their aid. 6. And they said to him: Come and be our leader, and fight against the children of Ammon. 7. To whom he replied: Are you not the ones who hated me and cast me out of my father's house, and now you come to me, compelled by necessity? 8. And the princes of Gilead said to Jephthah: For this very reason we now come to you, that you may go forth with us and fight against the children of Ammon, and be the leader of all who dwell in Gilead. 9. Jephthah also said to them: If you have truly come to me to fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them into my hands, shall I be your prince? 10. They answered him: The Lord who hears these things, He Himself is mediator and witness that we will fulfill our promises. 11. Therefore Jephthah went with the princes of Gilead, and all the people made him their leader. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah. 12. And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, who would say on his behalf: What is there between me and you, that you have come against me to lay waste my land? 13. To whom he replied: Because Israel took my land when he came up from Egypt, from the borders of Arnon to Jabbok and the Jordan; now therefore restore it to me peaceably. 14. Through them Jephthah again sent word and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon: 15. Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon; 16. but when they came up from Egypt, he walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17. And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Let me pass through your land. But he would not consent to his request. He also sent to the king of Moab, who likewise refused to grant passage. So he remained in Kadesh, 18. and went around the side of the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the eastern region of the land of Moab, and encamped beyond the Arnon; nor did he wish to enter the borders of Moab, for the Arnon is the boundary of the land of Moab. 19. So Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and they said to him: Let me pass through your land to the river. 20. But he too, despising Israel's words, did not let him pass through his territory; instead, assembling a vast multitude, he went out against him at Jahaz and strongly resisted. 21. And the Lord delivered him into the hands of Israel with all his army, who struck him down and possessed all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that region, 22. and all its territories, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23. The Lord God of Israel therefore overthrew the Amorite, His people Israel fighting against him — and now you wish to possess his land? 24. Do not those things which Chemosh your god possesses rightfully belong to you? And those things which the Lord our God has obtained as victor, shall they not pass into our possession? 25. Unless perhaps you are better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab; or you can prove that he contended against Israel and fought against him, 26. when he dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its towns, or in all the cities along the Jordan, for three hundred years. Why in all that time did you attempt nothing regarding this claim? 27. Therefore I do not sin against you, but you act wrongly against me, waging unjust wars against me. Let the Lord, the arbiter of this day, judge between Israel and the children of Ammon. 28. And the king of the children of Ammon would not comply with the words of Jephthah, which he had sent through messengers. 29. Therefore the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and going around Gilead and Manasseh, also Mizpah of Gilead, and from there crossing over to the children of Ammon, 30. he made a vow to the Lord, saying: If You deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, 31. whoever first comes out from the doors of my house and meets me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, I will offer him as a holocaust to the Lord. 32. And Jephthah crossed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 33. And he struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is planted with vineyards, with an exceedingly great slaughter; and the children of Ammon were humbled before the children of Israel. 34. But when Jephthah returned to Mizpah, to his house, his only daughter came to meet him with timbrels and dances; for he had no other children. 35. When he saw her, he tore his garments and said: Alas, my daughter, you have deceived me, and you yourself are deceived; for I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do nothing else. 36. She answered him: My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me whatever you have promised, since the victory and vengeance over your enemies has been granted to you. 37. And she said to her father: Grant me only this that I ask: Let me go for two months to wander the mountains and bewail my virginity with my companions. 38. He answered her: Go. And he let her go for two months. And when she had gone with her companions and friends, she wept for her virginity in the mountains. 39. And when the two months were completed, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man. From that time a custom grew up in Israel, and the practice was preserved, 40. that after the yearly cycle the daughters of Israel would come together and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days.
Verse 1: Jephthah the Gileadite, son of a harlot
1. THERE WAS AT THAT TIME JEPHTHAH THE GILEADITE (and therefore from the tribe of Manasseh, not Gad, as Cajetan would have it. For the Manassites are everywhere called Gileadites, not Gadites, even though the Gadites also occupied part of the region of Gilead) A MOST VALIANT MAN. — In Hebrew 'gibbor chail,' that is, 'a man of virtue,' or 'of strength,' or 'of valor.'
SON OF A HARLOT — not one publicly exposed, but a private concubine. The Hebrew is 'zonah,' which word signifies both a harlot, as the Septuagint and our Vulgate translate, and a tavern-keeper, as the Chaldean renders here. Jephthah was therefore illegitimate, such as are now barred by law from rulership as well as from the priesthood, on account of infamy and morals that are sometimes less than honorable, because they are raised negligently. But Jephthah abolished all these disadvantages by his courage and virtue; therefore, God dispensing in the law of Deuteronomy 23:2, which ordains that a 'mamzer,' that is, an illegitimate child, may not be admitted into the assembly of God to enjoy the rights of the people of Israel, Jephthah was admitted and made leader of the people. Similar examples of illegitimate persons elevated to positions of authority are recounted by Plutarch, Athenaeus, and Serarius here.
WHO WAS BORN OF GILEAD. — Therefore Jephthah's father was called Gilead. So the Septuagint, and this is clear from the following verse.
THEY CAST OUT JEPHTHAH, SAYING: YOU CANNOT BE AN HEIR IN THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHER, BECAUSE YOU WERE BORN OF ANOTHER MOTHER — that is, one who was of another tribe, namely different from their own, says Matthew Galenus, Chancellor of Douai, writing on Hebrews chapter 11. For, he says, no one could honorably marry a woman not of his own tribe. If anyone, however, enticed by beauty, had attempted this, the woman was called 'zonah.' Hence the Septuagint calls her 'hetairan,' that is, a female companion. When the husband died, she returned to her own tribe without dowry and inheritance; but if a son had been born, he would inherit in his father's tribe — which Jephthah's brothers were now denying, as he reproaches them in verse 7, not daring to say this if he had been born of a prostitute. So says Galenus. But it is false that Israelite women could not marry into another tribe without stigma and infamy. For the princes of Judah often married daughters of priests from the tribe of Levi, and counted it an honor, as Aaron married Elizabeth, daughter of Amminadab, prince of the tribe of Judah (Exodus 6:23). And Zechariah married Elizabeth, a kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin, who was from the tribe of Judah (Luke 1). Furthermore, 'another woman' here is not understood as one who is of another tribe, but one who is other than the legitimate wife — that is, who is a harlot and concubine, whom the Septuagint politely calls 'hetairan,' as we call her a mistress; or who is the wife of another man, and therefore an adulteress, which Josephus suggests Jephthah's mother was.
THEY CAST HIM OUT — unjustly; for to an illegitimate child by common law, food is owed from the father and his house, though not an inheritance, as Sylvester and other Doctors of Cases teach.
Verse 3: He dwelt in the land of Tob
3. HE DWELT IN THE LAND OF TOB — which was situated in the land of Gilead, says Josephus and Adrichomius. Serarius thinks it is Tubin, mentioned in 1 Maccabees 5:13. Furthermore, 'Tob' means 'good'; indeed this land was eminently good for Jephthah, that is, the best, because it kindly received and nourished him as a fugitive.
AND THERE GATHERED TO HIM MEN WHO WERE DESTITUTE AND GIVEN TO BRIGANDAGE. — The word 'latrocinantes' (given to brigandage) is not in the Hebrew, Greek, or Chaldean; therefore it seems to have crept into the text from the margin, inserted by someone wishing to explain the word 'inopes' (destitute); for destitute soldiers often live by plunder and brigandage. Now these raids were just if they were taken from an enemy in a just war; unjust if from friends, or from enemies in an unjust war. Therefore these brigands over whom Jephthah presided were soldiers and raiders, who perhaps previously had unjustly seized others' property; but after they followed Jephthah, they only conducted just raids, namely against the Ammonites and Philistines, as did those who followed David when he was a fugitive from Saul (1 Samuel 22:2).
For among the ancients 'latro' (brigand) meant the same as soldier, who was called 'latro' as if from 'latero,' because he clung to the side (latus) of the commander and accompanied him; or from 'latendo' (hiding), because he attacked by stealth and from ambush to plunder. So Varro, Festus, Nonius, Marcellus, and others.
Verse 8: You shall be leader of all in Gilead
8. AND YOU SHALL BE THE LEADER OF ALL WHO DWELL IN GILEAD. — The meaning is: after the victory over the Ammonites, the other tribes also accepted Jephthah as their leader.
Verse 11: Jephthah spoke before the Lord in Mizpah
11. AND JEPHTHAH SPOKE ALL HIS WORDS BEFORE THE LORD IN MIZPAH. — First, 'before,' that is, publicly, in a general assembly and with the people listening, in whose midst God was considered to be present, says Vatablus. Second, 'before the Lord,' that is, invoking God as witness of the pact which he was entering into with the envoys regarding the leadership. So Abulensis. Third, 'before the Lord,' that is, before the High Priest, clothed in the Ephod and the Breastplate, in which were the Urim and Thummim; for he represented God, and when consulting on behalf of a prince, he received oracles. Fourth, 'before the Lord,' that is, before an altar which they seem to have erected there, to solemnly ratify this covenant. Now the words that Jephthah spoke there constituted a promise, by which he promised the envoys that he would faithfully and vigorously conduct the people's war; and in turn they promised to steadfastly follow his authority and commands as their commander. And for this he invoked God, both as witness and as helper, to prosper this authority and war of his, as did Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus, Constantine, Theodosius, and other commanders, who accordingly, through God's help, obtained victory and triumphed over their enemies.
Verse 13: Israel took my land
13. BECAUSE ISRAEL TOOK MY LAND, WHEN HE CAME UP FROM EGYPT, FROM THE BORDERS OF ARNON TO JABBOK AND THE JORDAN. — The case is this: Sihon the king by war occupied some cities of Moab and Ammon; but Moses and the Hebrews killed King Sihon and occupied everything that was his. Therefore the king of Ammon now complains of an injury done to him, and claims back and demands his land that had been occupied from Sihon by the Hebrews, who had wrested it from Sihon by war.
HE TOOK (namely, unjustly by force and unjust war) MY LAND — for Sihon, king of the Amorites, had unjustly invaded and occupied this land. But you, O Hebrews, invading and killing Sihon, usurped for yourselves everything that he had occupied, both justly and unjustly, excluding me, who was also the first and rightful heir, to whom therefore you ought to have restored those lands, rather than claim them for yourselves. The history is narrated in Numbers 21:25 and following, and although there only the land of the Moabites subdued by Sihon and, after his killing, occupied by the Jews is mentioned, yet that a part of the Ammonite territory was also then occupied by them is clear from this passage. Or certainly it must be said, with Lyranus, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others, that the same person was formerly, or at that time, king of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. For the Moabites were allied with the Ammonites, inasmuch as they descended from two brothers, Moab and Ammon, born of Lot (Genesis 19). Therefore the king of Ammon acts on behalf of the Moabites, either as subjects, or as allies and confederates, who through him seek to reclaim their rights from the Hebrews.
Verse 15: Israel did not take the land of Moab
15. ISRAEL DID NOT TAKE THE LAND OF MOAB, NOR THE LAND OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON — namely, that which the Moabites and Ammonites actually possessed at that time. For God had forbidden the Hebrews to invade them as kinsmen through Lot and Abraham (Numbers 21, and Deuteronomy 2 and 3). But that part of Moabite and Ammonite territory which Sihon, king of the Amorites, had occupied by war, whether just or unjust (for this matter is uncertain and debatable), the Hebrews, having overthrown him, occupied by God's command, as Jephthah narrates in what follows. Because that land was no longer the Moabites' but Sihon's, the king who was the Hebrews' enemy, and the Moabites could not recover it from him or reclaim it by war. Therefore the Hebrews occupied it not as Moabite territory but as Sihon's, by right of war with God's consent. This is the first argument by which Jephthah proves that the king of the Ammonites falsely complains about his land being occupied by the Hebrews under Moses, and therefore unjustly sent the Ammonites against Judea to oppress it. But this argument alone was insufficient and did not satisfy the king of Ammon; hence Jephthah adds other arguments to strengthen it.
Verse 24: What Chemosh your god possesses
24. DO NOT THOSE THINGS WHICH CHEMOSH YOUR GOD POSSESSES RIGHTFULLY BELONG TO YOU? AND THOSE THINGS WHICH THE LORD OUR GOD HAS OBTAINED AS VICTOR SHALL PASS INTO OUR POSSESSION. — This is the second argument, as if to say: You occupy those regions which your god Chemosh gave you; therefore with equal right we occupy the land of King Sihon (in which there were some cities seized by him from the Moabites and Ammonites), which God, fighting for us as victor, gave to us. This argument of Jephthah is not entirely solid in every respect. For God gives victories to the Turks and other tyrants, and subjugates the regions of Christians; and yet the Turks and tyrants unjustly invade and hold them out of ambition and lust for dominion. For impious is the opinion of Alberico Gentili, book 1 of The Law of War, chapter 22, that the Turk justly possesses everything he has snatched from Christians, on the ground that he does so according to the will of God who wishes to chastise Christians. Nor was it true that Chemosh had given that land to the Moabites.
Nevertheless, this argument was aptly directed ad hominem, as if to say: You, O king of Ammon, declare from whom and by what right you hold all your regions and cities. Surely you will say and claim nothing more splendid than the will and voluntary gift of your god Chemosh. But I similarly assert that our God donated to us that land which you claim back, granting it to us through His victory. And God is the Lord of all kingdoms, who accordingly transfers kingdoms from one nation to another as it pleases Him.
The true basis of the Hebrews' right to occupy these regions was that they had invaded the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, by God's command, and by the same command they occupied and possessed everything that had been subject to them, as is clear from Numbers 21 and Deuteronomy 2. Jephthah hints at this title but does not expressly allege it, because he could scarcely have proven it to the Gentile king of Ammon. So says Abulensis.
Verse 25: Are you better than Balak?
25. UNLESS PERHAPS YOU ARE BETTER THAN BALAK, SON OF ZIPPOR, KING OF MOAB — as if to say: When the Hebrews, after slaying Sihon, occupied his dominions, Balak was then king of Moab, a wise and powerful man. Yet he at that time did not reclaim these territories from the Hebrews by even a single word. Therefore neither should you, who are nearly three hundred years later than he, claim them back or be able to do so. This is the third argument. The fourth follows.
Verse 26: For three hundred years
26. FOR THREE HUNDRED YEARS — as if to say: For three hundred years we have occupied these regions, which you now seek to reclaim by right of return. Therefore we hold them by the longest prescription of time, especially since for so many years no one has reclaimed them from us.
WHY IN ALL THAT TIME HAVE YOU ATTEMPTED NOTHING REGARDING THIS CLAIM? — But you kept silent, and by your silence you indicated that you were content, and tacitly consented that we should possess them? Note here that from Moses to Jephthah precisely three hundred years had not elapsed, but only 266; but Jephthah, in the manner of common people, inflated the number to strengthen the claim of prescription more, and used round and complete numbers, namely hundreds, as if to say: Already the third century of years is running, the third period of prescription and possession is in progress; therefore you labor in vain to dislodge us so late. Furthermore, Melchior Canus and Serarius, who separate and count separately the years of the Hebrews' oppression from the years of the Judges, calculate from Moses to Jephthah a minimum of 340 years. Abulensis thinks that in that age, prescription through long time, even in bad faith, was valid by the law of nations, and confirmed the thing so long possessed to the possessor. Otherwise, he says, the king of Ammon would have replied that this Hebrew possession had been begun in bad faith, and therefore the time of prescription was not valid here. But the king would have had to prove this. For in doubt, the condition of the possessor is better. And if the plaintiff wishes to dislodge the possessor from his possession, the burden of proving bad faith falls on him. For everyone is presumed to be of good faith, and a possessor of good faith, unless the contrary is proven.
Thus recently Suleiman, Emperor of the Turks, after a thousand years wanted all rights restored that had once belonged to Constantine the Great, as Giovio attests in book 30. This is a Turkish claim.
Furthermore, in a similar way to Jephthah, the Lacedaemonians once replied, according to Isocrates in the Archidamus: "We hold this land, given by the posterity of Hercules, confirmed by the Delphic oracle, and with its inhabitants defeated in war. You are not unaware that possessions, whether private or public, are confirmed by prescription of long time. We have held Messene for more than 400 years."
Verse 27: Let the Lord judge as arbiter
27. LET THE LORD JUDGE AS ARBITER OF THIS DAY — that is, of this dispute which we are conducting on this day. Thus 'day' is taken for 'judgment,' 1 Corinthians 4:3 and Jeremiah 17:16; it is a metonymy.
Verse 29: The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah
29. THEREFORE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON JEPHTHAH — that is, God sent upon Jephthah the Spirit of courage, ardor, and zeal for undertaking war against the wicked king of Ammon. Impelled by this, he summoned to it the inhabitants of Gilead, the tribes of Manasseh, and 'Mizpah of Gilead,' that is, Mizpah, which is at the farthest boundaries of Gilead toward Mount Lebanon and Hermon; for these were most immediately and closely threatened by the neighboring Ammonite enemies.
Verse 30: He made a vow to the Lord
30. HE MADE A VOW TO THE LORD SAYING: IF YOU DELIVER THE CHILDREN OF AMMON INTO MY HANDS, WHOEVER FIRST COMES OUT FROM THE DOORS OF MY HOUSE AND MEETS ME WHEN I RETURN IN PEACE FROM THE CHILDREN OF AMMON, I WILL OFFER HIM AS A HOLOCAUST TO THE LORD. — Similar to this is what Aldrovandus writes about the donkey: Alexander of Macedon, he says, when the oracle had been given that he should kill the first person who met him — when he saw someone driving a little donkey before him, they say he commanded the man to be seized at once according to the oracle. But the man, about to be slaughtered, having understood the reason for his death, cried out that it was his forerunner, not himself, that the oracle sought, since the donkey had met him first.
One asks first: What victim did Jephthah vow here? First, some judge that he vowed to sacrifice to God the first human being who would come to meet him from his house. So St. Augustine.
Second, the Rabbis and Abulensis think he vowed to sacrifice to God whatever sacrificial animal first met him, whether ox, calf, goat, or ram; but that afterward Jephthah had doubts about the meaning and subject matter of his vow, because his words were general. Therefore, when his daughter was the first to meet him, he judged himself obligated and compelled to sacrifice her.
Third, and best: Jephthah intended the first living thing, or the first animal from his house, that would meet him, to be sacrificed to God. Hence from the Hebrew it can be translated in the neuter: 'Whatever animal first meets me from my house, I will sacrifice.' So the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others. This is clear from the outcome: for when his daughter was the first to come to meet him from the house, he thought he was bound by his vow and compelled to sacrifice her.
One asks secondly: Was this vow licit or illicit? First, many judge it to have been impious, foolish, and parricidal. So St. Ambrose, book 1 of On Duties, last chapter; St. Augustine, Question 49; Tertullian, book 3 Against Marcion; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration on the Maccabees; Theodoret and Procopius; here Chrysostom, homily On Jephthah. And St. Thomas, citing St. Jerome, in the Secunda Secundae, Question 88, article 2: "In vowing, he says, he was foolish, because he lacked discernment; and in fulfilling it, impious." For it is impious to kill one's daughter, impious to sacrifice human beings to God and to make offering with human blood. Hence St. Jerome, book 1 Against Jovinian, before the middle: "The father is reproved for his rash vow, etc. For if a dog, they say, or a donkey had met him, what would he have done?" For by the law it was forbidden to offer a dog or a donkey. St. Jerome continues: "From which they (the Hebrews) want it to have been done by God's dispensation, that he who had rashly vowed should learn the error of his vows in his daughter's death," so that the rashness of the one making the vow might be punished, says St. Augustine, Question 49.
If you say Jephthah is praised by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, Abulensis responds that he is praised for the merit of his faith — namely, that trusting in God he exposed himself to the danger of death in battle, fighting against such powerful Ammonites — but not for his vow. And it is sufficiently established that Jephthah, and any of those men whom the Apostle placed in that Catalogue of Faith, sinned gravely, says Abulensis. Hence even the Gentiles censured and condemned those who sacrificed human beings to Saturn. Who does not blame Creon, says Serarius, for having sacrificed his son Menoeceus at Thebes? Or Erechtheus for having sacrificed his daughter Praxithea at Athens? Did not the Cretans expel their own king Idomeneus, because, returning from the Trojan War, after the manner of our Jephthah, he wished to place upon the altars of the gods the son who met him, in fulfillment of a vow? How much the Poets wrote about Agamemnon's Iphigenia! And Seneca in the Suasoria: Were not the Scythians, Taurians, Pontic peoples, and Africans also once infamous on this account? — as Tertullian writes in the Scorpiace, Minucius in the Octavius, Clement in the Protreptic, and Euripides.
Therefore Procopius says that this victory was granted by God to Jephthah not because of the vow, but so that it might be made manifest that God was avenging the injuries done to Israel by the Ammonites.
Secondly, others on the contrary judge this vow of Jephthah to have been pious and holy, on the ground that it was made at the impulse of the Holy Spirit. So St. Anselm, Ambrosiaster on Hebrews chapter 11, Serarius and Salianus here; and St. Augustine and St. Jerome support this, in his letter to Julian, where he says Jephthah offered his virgin daughter, and for this reason is placed in the enumeration of Saints by the Apostle.
They prove this first, because it is said here that the Spirit of God rushed upon him, which although it must refer to the battle, nevertheless seems to refer also to the vow, which was the means — indeed the beginning — of the battle and victory.
Secondly, because Ecclesiasticus, chapter 46, and the Apostle, Hebrews 11, places Jephthah in the Catalogue of Saints; therefore he does not seem to have sinned here — or certainly, if he sinned, he soon repented.
Third, because God through this vow seems to have granted him such a great victory. Therefore He held it ratified and pleasing.
Fourth, because his daughter, offering herself to be sacrificed in fulfillment of her father's vow, is wonderfully praised by the Fathers and compared to Isaac.
Fifth, because this sacrifice of the daughter was a type of the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross, as the Fathers teach. For there was no more expressive type and figure of that sacrifice than this daughter sacrificed by her father for the salvation of Israel. Therefore it seems that God willed to give this type, which would foreshadow and prefigure the sacrifice of Christ.
The third opinion is the middle one and the more probable: namely, that this vow was indeed in itself illicit and impious, because through it he sacrificed a human being — indeed, his own daughter — to God, which is forbidden by every law of nature, divine and human law. Yet Jephthah is excused either wholly or in part through ignorance and zeal for religion, because with a simple, sincere, and pious mind he thought himself bound by this vow to sacrifice his daughter, since she was the first to meet him. For it was a rude age, ignorant of cases of conscience. And Jephthah was a military man; soldiers think themselves bound by their oaths and vows, even those rashly made, out of the religion and reverence they owe to God. Thus St. Jerome, on Jeremiah chapter 7, toward the end, excuses Jephthah through invincible ignorance, because the intention of the offerer was good, even if the offering was evil, since in that rude age there was no prophet — indeed, not even a high priest, says Abulensis here, Question 48 — who could resolve this case. Hear Serarius: Jephthah's deed is mitigated first, because since the worship of the true God had so often and so long collapsed, there had already prevailed among the Israelites, derived from the errors of the Gentiles, the opinion that such a sacrifice was pleasing to God. Second, he was looking at the example of Abraham, and thus thought he was rightly imitating him; and perhaps, as St. Augustine indicates, he hoped that if the sacrifice was not pleasing to God, it would be prevented just as in the case of Abraham (Genesis 22). Third, there was also great praise of faith in him, because, as the same Augustine notes, however grievous it was to him, he preferred to fulfill his vow rather than yield to his own grief. Fourth, he believed, says the same Augustine, that the soul of a good virgin would be well received, that is, would fly to heaven — she who had not vowed herself to be sacrificed, but had not resisted the vow and will of her father, and had followed the judgment of God. Fifth, he was most devoted to the common good and public salvation; and therefore he feared that if he did not fulfill his vow, the Lord would be angry and afflict him and the entire people with some calamity. Sixth, he was greatly moved by the fact that, immediately after his vow, he had obtained so noble a victory over such fierce and proud enemies, so that he persuaded himself that the vow had not displeased God, and therefore it must now be fulfilled by him.
Hence Jephthah is read to have been reproved by no Prophet or Pontiff, but praised by the Apostle and Ecclesiasticus. Why then should we condemn him?
Furthermore, St. Augustine, Question 99 to the Orthodox, says that the devil caused the daughter with her lyre, congratulating her father on his victory, to be the first to meet him, with this aim: that Jephthah, who most dearly loved his only daughter, would violate his vow. But Jephthah overcame this temptation and sacrificed his vowed daughter to attest his piety toward God, and for this reason he was inscribed in the Catalogue of the Saints.
Therefore the Fathers recognize great mysteries in this sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter.
For first, St. Augustine, Question 49, says that through it was signified that an offering of human blood must be made to God the Father.
Second, St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Jephthah, volume 1, says it was here foreshadowed that Christ would offer His daughter, that is, the Church, like a virgin, to God as a holocaust, especially through the sacrifice of martyrs in times of persecution. Hear St. Chrysostom: "I consider Jephthah to be our Lord Jesus Christ, the conqueror of the world, who offered His only daughter — the Church herself — in times of persecution, under wicked bishops, not of lambs but of wolves, as He Himself says: 'Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.' Therefore He offered the Church through the sacrifice of martyrs in times of persecution, and a single victim was offered to God, that it might be an acceptable sacrifice to the Father from the gains of the Only-Begotten. The only one offers the one, the bridegroom the bride, the father the daughter. For what can be found stronger than the integrity and virginity of the Church, which conceives in corruption and creates in integrity? She is the virgin who knew no man."
Anagogically, St. Augustine: It was signified, he says, that we would pass through the sacrifice of death to blessed immortality, just as Jephthah's daughter passed.
Tropologically, it was intimated that each person must offer his daughter — that is, his soul — to God through the mortification of desires and passions, "to be killed to evil things, to be given life in good things," says St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine.
Verse 35: My daughter, you have deceived me
35. MY DAUGHTER, YOU HAVE DECEIVED ME, AND YOU YOURSELF ARE DECEIVED. — "You have deceived me," because since you are my only offspring and heir, I hoped for posterity from you; but now by your coming to meet me you have taken away all that hope from me. "You have deceived me, therefore," because you have disappointed my hope. "You are deceived," because you thought you were bringing me joy and yourself glory by coming to meet your victorious father; but now you have brought me sorrow and yourself death. The Hebrew is: 'by bowing down you have bowed me down,' or 'by humbling you have humbled me, and you have been among those who trouble me.' There is a beautiful allusion through metathesis between 'cara' (to bow/humble) and 'achar' (to trouble), as if to say: You have troubled me, because you have humbled and cast down me and my hopes. The Septuagint and the Roman version: 'with disturbance you have disturbed me, and you have been in my disturbance.' The Septuagint seems to have read 'achar' (to trouble) in both ways; the Complutensian and Royal editions have: 'you have filled me, and you have become a scandal in my eyes.' St. Ambrose, book 1 of On Duties, chapter 12, reads: "Alas! My daughter, you have hindered me; you have become a goad of sorrows to me." The same author, in the book On Virginity: "Alas! My daughter, you have destroyed me."
FOR I OPENED MY MOUTH TO THE LORD (vowing that I would sacrifice to Him whoever first met me), AND I CANNOT DO OTHERWISE — as if to say: I cannot retract the vow already uttered; therefore by it I must sacrifice you to God, as the first to meet me. Hence it is clear that Jephthah did not intend to vow only a sacrificial animal, but also a human being — indeed, his daughter — if she should be the first to meet him. For thus he himself interprets it here. And no one is a better interpreter of one's own mind and vow than the one who vows. Hence also he is aptly called Jephthah, that is, 'one who opens' — namely, the mouth for vowing — opening it, I say, too widely and imprudently.
Verse 36: Do to me whatever you have promised
36. SHE ANSWERED HIM: MY FATHER, IF YOU HAVE OPENED YOUR MOUTH TO THE LORD (that is, if you have vowed to sacrifice me to God), DO TO ME WHATEVER YOU HAVE PROMISED, SINCE VICTORY AND VENGEANCE OVER YOUR ENEMIES HAS BEEN GRANTED TO YOU. — See and admire in this daughter the courage, obedience, religion, and love of country with which she generously and eagerly offers herself to death and sacrifice. For she could have replied to her father: I did not vow to sacrifice myself to God; nor are you, O father, the master of my life, so as to be able to devote and slaughter me against my will. I do not wish to die young and childless; I wish to enjoy the flower of my youth happily; I wish to propagate my family line and yours. Therefore I annul and dissolve your vow — and thus she would have freed herself from death and her father from the vow and grief. But she refused, so as to attest her religion toward God, her obedience toward her father, and her charity toward the Republic. Therefore she made herself a victim, indeed a holocaust to God for her father and her country. For she feared that if she refused death, the penalty of the violated vow would fall upon her father and her country, and the victory received would be turned into disaster. Hear St. Ambrose: "What is full of wonder in distinguished and learned men is found much more magnificent and much more illustrious in this virgin." And shortly after: "Neither the weeping of her companions moved the girl, nor did sorrow bend her, nor did groaning delay her, nor did the day pass, nor did the hour deceive. She returned to her father as if returning to the vow, and by her own will she impelled the hesitant man, and by her free choice made what was a calamity of impiety become a sacrifice of piety."
Furthermore, God permitted this to happen, says Serarius, for weighty reasons. The first is, so that there would be a most clear figure of the death which Christ the Lord was to bear for our sake, not only by will and desire, but also in effect and in reality. The second, so that Jephthah's faith and supreme religion toward God might shine more brightly — from which neither the loss of so dear a thing, nor the love of posterity, nor so bitter a wound of present and future time could turn him away. The third, so that likewise the extraordinary faith of the tender young virgin, her religion toward God, her piety toward her father and whole country, and her surpassing greatness of soul might be publicly established as a mirror in which the whole world could gaze. The fourth, so that the entire world might understand how accurately, diligently, and completely whatever vows had been made, whether by good counsel or by divine admonition and inspiration, ought to be rendered to God, even if a thousand most grave difficulties should arise.
Verse 37: Let me bewail my virginity
37. LET ME GO FOR TWO MONTHS TO WANDER THE MOUNTAINS AND BEWAIL MY VIRGINITY WITH MY COMPANIONS — namely, that I die a virgin without offspring and heir. For in that age this was sad and dishonorable; but now through Christ, virginity is reckoned as the highest praise and glory, as a heavenly way of life and imitation of the angelic life.
Therefore this daughter wept for her virginity, that is, for her age suited to marriage, which was condemned to barrenness by her father's vow. Such funerary holidays (so called from 'nex,' killing) also existed among the Romans, says Arias.
Philo Biblicus asserts the formula of the lamentation, or dirge, of Jephthah's daughter was this: "Hear, O mountains, my lament, and attend, O hills, to the tears of my eyes, and be witnesses, O rocks, to the mourning of my soul. Behold how I am accused, but let not my soul be received in vain. Let my words travel to heaven, and let my tears be written before the face of the firmament, that a father may not overcome the daughter whom he devoted to sacrifice, that the prince may hear that his only-begotten has been promised in sacrifice. But I have not been satisfied with my bridal chamber, nor have I been filled with the garlands of my wedding." And after some further words: "Bow down, O trees, your branches, and mourn my youth; come, O wild beasts of the forests, and trample upon my virginity, for my years have been cut short, and the time of my life has grown old in darkness," etc. These are his words, in his usual style.
Furthermore, the Gentiles imitated Jephthah. For Erechtheus, waging war against Eumolpus, having been told he would be the victor if he sacrificed his daughter as a victim, communicated the matter to his wife and slaughtered his daughter as a sacrificial offering to death. So Plutarch in the Parallels. The same author, in the same place, toward the end: "When pestilence," he says, "was pressing upon Sparta, it was divinely indicated that the plague would cease if they sacrificed a noble virgin according to custom. When Helen had been drawn by lot and was being led forth adorned for sacrifice, an eagle swooped down, snatched the sword, and carrying it to a herd, placed it upon a young cow; whereby it happened that the slaughter of the virgin was avoided." Exactly the same thing happened to Valeria Luperca, who, when she had been destined for the altar and an eagle had snatched the sword and cast it upon a certain young cow — Valeria, with the cow slaughtered, completed the sacred rite, says Plutarch.
One asks why she wished to wander the mountains in this lamentation of hers. Arias gives three reasons. The first is, "so that the crying and lamentation uttered from a high place might reach more far and wide to the ears of the neighbors. For this is the nature and power of the voice." Jeremiah 31: "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning." The second, "so that the prospect of the distant mountains might more frequently represent a memorial of the event to inhabitants, strangers, and travelers alike." The third, "so that from among the many solitary places she had seen and wandered, she might choose some one place where, enclosed within the walls of a cloister, she might live a solitary life." But this reason I refuted above and will refute more fully shortly.
The literal and proximate reason was that the entire region is mountainous. For she dwelt in Mizpah, that is, in the high watchtower of a mountain, from which one descends to the mountains below, as the Hebrew indicates.
Verse 39: He did to her as he had vowed
39. AND HE DID TO HER AS HE HAD VOWED. — The Rabbis, and from among them Lyranus, Pagninus, and Vatablus, report that the scribes and sages of the Hebrews, upon learning of Jephthah's vow, were consulted and replied that the natural death of the daughter promised by the father's vow could be commuted to a civil death, namely to a religious and chaste life; and so it was done. Therefore this daughter was not killed by her father, but made herself a Nazirite, that is, a religious woman and, as it were, a nun. Just as St. Bernard, meeting convicts about to be hanged by the magistrate for their crimes, freed them and made them monks, saying: You wish to kill them by a brief death; I will consume and destroy them by the long death of continual mortification in a monastery.
But this opinion is false and plainly contradicts this verse: "He did to her," it says, "as he had vowed." Now he had vowed not only to slaughter her for God, but also to offer her as a holocaust, that is, to burn and consume her entire slaughtered body in honor of God (for this is what a holocaust required). Therefore he truly slaughtered and burned her. This is the common understanding of the Fathers: Theodoret, St. Augustine, Bede, Procopius, Rupert, Abulensis, Hugh of St. Victor, Dionysius, Serarius, Salianus, Torniellus here, and St. Ambrose, book 1 of On Duties, last chapter; Tertullian, book 3 Against Marcion, chapter 4; St. Jerome, letter 34 to Julian; St. Chrysostom, homily On Jephthah; Origen, volume 9 on John; Gregory Nazianzen, oration On the Maccabees; St. Thomas, Secunda Secundae, Question 88, article 2, reply 2; Suarez, Lessius, Azor, and others throughout.
Finally, Philo says the name of this daughter was Seila, a name certainly worthy of eternal remembrance.
Verse 40: They lament the daughter of Jephthah
40. AND THEY LAMENT THE DAUGHTER OF JEPHTHAH. — Hebrew 'letannot,' which the Septuagint translates 'to weep'; the Chaldean, 'to lament the daughter of Jephthah'; others, 'to recount'; others, 'to give,' namely praise to the daughter of Jephthah. Furthermore, the Rabbis, Pagninus, and Vatablus translate: 'to address or console the daughter of Jephthah,' because she had to remain unmarried by reason of her father's vow. For they think the natural death was commuted to a civil death, that is, to celibacy.
Hence four days in the year access to her was allowed, says Vatablus, so that they might speak to her and console her, just as access to nuns enclosed in a cloister is sometimes permitted during the year; but this I have already refuted.
Finally, St. Augustine, Question 49, and following him Hugh of St. Victor, shows that Jephthah was in all things a type of Christ. For first, he says, Jephthah in Hebrew means the same as 'a door that opens.' And thus Christ says: "I am the door" (John 10), through which lies open the way to heaven: "For He opens, and no one shuts" (Revelation 3:7).
Second, Jephthah's brothers cast him out of home as the son of a harlot; so the Scribes cast Christ out of their Synagogue as a violator of the law and not a legitimate son of the Synagogue.
Third, Jephthah in exile dwelt in the land of Tob, that is, of goodness, meaning the best; so Christ, driven from life by the Jews, went to the blessed life in heaven.
Fourth, the destitute and brigands gathered to Jephthah; so to Christ came harlots and publicans, and among them the thief on the cross, and the mystical plunderers who by their repentance and virtue do violence to heaven and seize the kingdom of heaven.
Fifth, the Gileadites sought out the exiled Jephthah to be their war leader against the Ammonites; so the Gentiles sought out Christ, who had been spurned by the Jews, to be freed from the yoke of sin and the devil. Thus far St. Augustine.
Sixth, Jephthah before the battle made a vow to the Lord; so Christ before the duel of His passion and death prayed in the garden and devoted Himself as a victim to God, saying: "Not My will, but Yours be done."
Seventh, Jephthah sacrificed his daughter; Christ sacrificed His flesh and His humanity.
Eighth, the Israelites mourned yearly the death of Jephthah's daughter. So Christians every year during Holy Week mourn the death of Christ and sing the Lamentations of Jeremiah to Him in lamentation; and the Church, like a virgin, also mourns the sins of her faithful. Hear St. Augustine, Question 49: "Through the six ages of the world, as through sixty days, the holy Virgin Church wept for her virginal state, because although virginal, yet there were sins to be mourned, on account of which she, the universal virgin spread throughout the whole world, says daily: 'Forgive us our debts.' And these same sixty days he preferred to call two months, as I believe, because of two men: one through whom death came, the other through whom the resurrection of the dead, on account of whom also the two testaments are named."