What two views does Challoner record about Jephte’s vow and his daughter?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Some think the vow meant an offering permitted by law or another form of dedication, leaving his daughter consecrated to perpetual virginity. Challoner says the common opinion of the fathers and divines is that she was offered as a holocaust, and gives that opinion’s reasoning. These are his separately attributed explanations.

Chapter breakdown

Jephte the Galaadite is a most valiant warrior, son of a harlot and of Galaad. Galaad’s wife has sons who, when grown, expel Jephte, saying he cannot inherit in their father’s house because he has another mother. He flees from them to Tob; needy men and robbers gather and follow him as prince. Ammon makes war on Israel and presses hard, so Galaad’s elders fetch him from Tob, asking him to be prince and fight. He asks whether they are not those who hated him and drove him out, now coming from necessity. They repeat that he should fight Ammon and head all Galaad’s inhabitants. He asks whether, if they come sincerely and the Lord delivers Ammon into his hand, he will be their prince. They call the Lord who hears their words mediator and witness that they will do as promised. Jephte goes with the princes, all the people make him prince, and he speaks all his words before the Lord in Maspha.

Jephte sends messengers to Ammon’s king, asking why he has come to waste his land. The king says Israel took his land when coming from Egypt, from the Arnon’s confines to the Jaboc and Jordan, and demands its peaceful return. Jephte sends word again: Israel took neither Moab’s nor Ammon’s land. In his account, Israel left Egypt, crossed the desert toward the Red Sea and reached Cades. Edom’s king refused a request for passage; Moab’s king also refused, so Israel stayed at Cades. Israel went around Edom and Moab, came opposite Moab’s east coast and camped across the Arnon without entering Moab’s bounds. Israel asked Sehon, the Amorrhite king dwelling in Hesebon, for passage to the river. He despised the request, refused passage, gathered an immense multitude and strongly opposed Israel at Jasa. The Lord delivered him and all his army to Israel, which killed him and possessed all the Amorrhite land and its borders from Arnon to Jaboc and wilderness to Jordan.

Jephte says the Lord God of Israel destroyed the Amorrhite as Israel fought him and asks whether Ammon’s king will now possess that land. He compares possession of what the king’s god Chamos holds with Israel’s possession of what the Lord obtained by conquest. Challoner separately identifies Chamos as Moab’s and Ammon’s idol. He explains that Jephte argues from their opinion: they think they have just title to lands they imagine their gods helped them conquer; how much more, the note says, Israel has indisputable title to lands God conquered for it through visible miracles. Jephte asks whether the king is better than Balac son of Sephor, Moab’s king, or can show that Balac strove and fought against Israel. Israel has dwelt in Hesebon and its villages, Aroer and its villages, and all cities near the Jordan for three hundred years; why has Ammon attempted nothing about this claim all that time? Jephte says he has not trespassed against the king, who wrongs him through an unjust war, and calls on the Lord to judge between Israel and Ammon that day. The king refuses to listen to the words sent through the messengers.

The Lord’s spirit comes upon Jephte. He goes round Galaad, Manasses and Maspha of Galaad, and passes from there to Ammon. He vows to the Lord that if Ammon is delivered into his hands, whoever first comes out of his house’s doors to meet him on his peaceful return will be offered as a holocaust to the Lord. Challoner separately records two views. Some think the vow means consecrating whatever first meets him according to its kind: a holocaust if law permits that offering, otherwise another dedication to God. They therefore think his daughter is not killed but consecrated to perpetual virginity. The common opinion followed by the generality of holy fathers and divines, he says, is that she is offered as a holocaust under the vow and that Jephte does not sin, at least not mortally, in either making or keeping it. The note’s reasoning is that Scripture does not blame him and that God inspires the vow, as appears from verses 29–30, after which he obtains victory. It says he therefore reasonably concludes that God, master of life and death, is pleased on this occasion to dispense with his own law and wills fulfillment of the vow.

Jephte crosses to fight Ammon, and the Lord delivers them into his hands. He strikes from Aroer to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel with its vineyards, with very great slaughter; Israel humbles Ammon. Returning to his house in Maspha, he meets his only daughter, with timbrels and dances; he has no other children. He tears his garments and says she has deceived him and is herself deceived: he has opened his mouth to the Lord and can do nothing else. She answers that if he has opened his mouth to the Lord, he should do what he promised, since victory and revenge over his enemies have been granted. She asks only to go about the mountains for two months with her companions to mourn her virginity.

Challoner separately says childbearing was much desired under the Old Testament, when women might hope the world’s Saviour would one day come from a child of theirs; under the New Testament, he says, virginity is preferred, referring to 1 Corinthians 7:35. Jephte tells his daughter to go and sends her away for two months. She goes with her comrades and companions and mourns her virginity in the mountains. After the two months she returns, and he does to her as vowed; she knows no man. This gives rise to Israel’s custom: each year its daughters assemble for four days to lament Jephte the Galaadite’s daughter.

The story inside

The men who come seeking Jephte’s leadership receive his question about their earlier rejection and his conditional question about becoming prince. Their promise with the Lord as witness leads to his appointment and words at Maspha. His messengers then carry the king’s land claim and his own detailed response: the route, refused passage, battle with Sehon, possession boundaries and three hundred years without action on the claim. The king will not listen. The spirit comes upon Jephte, who makes his stated vow and defeats Ammon. His only daughter meets him on return; his lament receives her answer and request for two months in the mountains. She returns, he does as vowed, and the yearly four-day lament follows. Challoner’s explanations of Chamos, the vow’s two views and mourning virginity remain separate from the Scripture account.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Jephte’s appointment follows a particular exchange. He questions those who earlier rejected him, asks about their sincerity and his leadership if the Lord delivers Ammon, and receives their promise with the Lord as witness. The text gives those conditions rather than an unconditional agreement.
2
The land argument remains Jephte’s message. It distinguishes Moab and Ammon from Sehon’s Amorrhite land and retains refusals, route and borders. His comparison involving Chamos is explained by Challoner as reasoning from the other people’s opinion, including what they imagined their gods had done.
3
The vow note keeps both interpretations and their limits. One view allows dedication according to what law permits and therefore perpetual virginity; the common opinion Challoner records gives a holocaust reading with its qualified claim about sin and reasoning about inspiration and dispensation. The Scripture ending says Jephte did as vowed and records the annual lament; the commentary is not silently made part of that wording.

Test your recall

What does Jephte promise before the battle, who first meets him on return, and how does her request lead to the two-month absence and yearly lament?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 26402–26445
Judges Chapter 11 Jephte is made ruler of the people of Galaad: he first pleads their cause against the Ammonites; then making a vow obtains a signal victory; he performs his vow. 11:1. There was at that time Jephte, the Galaadite, a most valiant man, and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, and his father was Galaad. 11:2. Now Galaad had a wife of whom he had sons: who, after they were grown up, thrust out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother. 11:3. Then he fled and avoided them, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men and robbers, and they followed him as their prince. 11:4. In those days the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 11:5. And as they pressed hard upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to fetch Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them: 11:6. And they said to him: Come thou, and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon. 11:7. And he answered them: Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father’s house, and now you are come to me, constrained by necessity? 11:8. And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be head over all the inhabitants of Galaad. 11:9. Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my hand, shall I be your prince? 11:10. They answered him: The Lord, who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised. 11:11. Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.
Lines 26447–26487
11:12. And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name: What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land? 11:13. And he answered them: Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the confines of the Arnon unto the Jaboc and the Jordan: now, therefore, restore the same peaceably to me. 11:14. And Jephte again sent word by them, and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon: 11:15. Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: 11:16. But when they came up out of Egypt, he walked through the desert to the Red Sea, and came into Cades. 11:17. And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me to pass through thy land. But he would not condescend to his request. He sent also to the king of Moab, who, likewise, refused to give him passage. He abode, therefore, in Cades, 11:18. And went round the land of Edom at the side, and the land of Moab: and came over against the east coast of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon: and he would not enter the bounds of Moab. 11:19. So Israel sent messengers to Sehon, king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon, and they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy land to the river. 11:20. But he, also despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude, went out against him to Jasa, and made strong opposition. 11:21. And the Lord delivered him, with all his army, into the hands of Israel, and he slew him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite, the inhabitant of that country, 11:22. And all the coasts thereof from the Arnon to the Jaboc, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
Lines 26489–26517
11:23. So the Lord, the God of Israel, destroyed the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess his land? 11:24. Are not those things which thy god Chamos possesseth, due to thee by right? But what the Lord our God hath obtained by conquest, shall be our possession: Chamos.... The idol of the Moabites and Ammonites. He argues from their opinion, who thought they had a just title to the countries which they imagined they had conquered by the help of their gods: how much more then had Israel in indisputable title to the countries which God, by visible miracles, had conquered for them. 11:25. Unless, perhaps, thou art better than Balac, the son of Sephor, king of Moab: or canst shew that he strove against Israel, and fought against him, 11:26. Whereas he hath dwelt in Hesebon, and the villages thereof, and in Aroer, and its villages, and in all the cities near the Jordan, for three hundred years. Why have you for so long a time attempted nothing about this claim? 11:27. Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by declaring an unjust war against me. The Lord be judge, and decide this day, between Israel and the children of Ammon. 11:28. And the king of the children of Ammon would not hearken to the words of Jephte, which he sent him by the messengers.
Lines 26519–26546
11:29. Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad, and passing over from thence to the children of Ammon, 11:30. He made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, 11:31. Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord. Whosoever, etc.... Some are of opinion, that the meaning of this vow of Jephte, was to consecrate to God whatsoever should first meet him, according to the condition of the thing; so as to offer it up as a holocaust, if it were such a thing as might be offered by the law; or to devote it otherwise to God, if it were not such as the law allowed to be offered in sacrifice. And therefore they think the daughter of Jephte was not slain by her father, but only consecrated to perpetual virginity. But the common opinion followed by the generality of the holy fathers and divines is, that she was offered as a holocaust, in consequence of her father’s vow: and that Jephte did not sin, at least not mortally, neither in making, nor in keeping, his vow: since he is no ways blamed for it in scripture; and was even inspired by God himself to make the vow (as appears from ver. 29, 30) in consequence of which he obtained the victory; and therefore he reasonably concluded that God, who is the master of life and death, was pleased on this occasion to dispense with his own law; and that it was the divine will he should fulfil his vow.
Lines 26548–26570
11:32. And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 11:33. And he smote them from Aroer till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards, with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel. 11:34. And when Jephte returned into Maspha, to his house, his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children. 11:35. And when he saw her, he rent his garments, and said: Alas! my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing. 11:36. And she answered him: My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the victory hath been granted to thee, and revenge of thy enemies. 11:37. And she said to her father: Grant me only this, which I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity with my companions.
Lines 26572–26589
Bewail my virginity.... The bearing of children was much coveted under the Old Testament, when women might hope that from some child of theirs, the Saviour of the world might one day spring. But under the New Testament virginity is preferred. 1 Cor. 7.35. 11:38. And he answered her: Go. And he sent her away for two months. And when she was gone with her comrades and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains. 11:39. And the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man. From thence came a fashion in Israel, and a custom has been kept: 11:40. That, from year to year, the daughters of Israel assemble together, and lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite, for four days.