Thank you, Ann.
I really appreciate those points.
Food for thought ...
Sylvia
A "My Book of Bible Stories" tale that I've always hated
by JimmyPage 72 Replies latest jw friends
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John Doe
Why do you support and try to rationalize evil?
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mrsjones5
Judges 11:40 (New International Version)
40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Sounds like she was killed to me
Josie -
snowbird
Why do you support and try to rationalize evil?
When it's warranted, I always give Biblical accounts the benefit of the doubt.
I believe this case warrants it.
Sylvia
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jamiebowers
In keeping with the above Scripture, I'm in the camp of those who believe that she was not killed but was dedicated to service at the Temple, and that the other girls visited her to offer condolences for her having to remain a virgin for the rest of her life.
I'd rather be a burnt offering than remain a lifelong virgin, (LOL)!
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JWoods
I'd rather be a burnt offering than remain a lifelong virgin, (LOL)!
As long as we are speculating, how do we know if she was still a virgin after the two month stay of execution?
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DJK
pmsl at jamie.
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John Doe
When it's warranted, I always give Biblical accounts the benefit of the doubt.
Why would sacrificing your virgin daughter ever be allowed any benefit of the doubt? What doubt? There is no doubt that such an act is evil.
Tell me this. Detach yourself from any religious beliefs and imagine the same story that glorified killing a daughter because you made a rash promise. What would you think of it?
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mrsjones5
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."
36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."
38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite custom 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.I just read the whole account and it relays quite clearly that the girl was given up as a burnt offering. I get no understanding that her life was spared and she was allowed to serve out her days at a temple.
Josie
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donuthole
I know some Bible commentators try to water this down like the Watchtower and envision some sort of sacrificial service, like in a convent, but the most obvious reading is that she was killed.
This may seem strange but the whole book of Judges is strange. I think the key to understanding is taking note of this repeated phrase, "in those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
The book of Judges is lots of people doing what they thought was best in their own eyes.