Jepthah...not such a good guy

Jepthah killed his daughter. The question which surrounds this ancient text is did he really kill his daughter in order to keep his promise to God? To add context to this story of antiquity, God had promised to Jepthah that they would be victorious in battle. However Jepthah made a vow in addition to God’s promise of victory in battle. It is my opinion that Jepthah made the vow out of fear and insecurity of the approaching battle. Jepthah made the vow which was not required, nor did God demand it. He made the vow because he lacked confidence in God’s promise. That is at the heart of the issue. Jepthah’s faith was lacking. Jepthah vowed that should they win the battle, he would offer God a sacrifice of the first thing that comes out of his home. Jepthah goes on to win the battle, and upon returning to his home his daughter comes out of his house. This is where the debate begins. Some who try and romanticize the text, also try and draw specific implications from it as well. These people argue that Jepthah would never have offered his daughter as a human sacrifice, and therefore in order to complete his vow she would have lived in a state of perpetual virginity. However to come to this conclusion one must warp the text to the point where it is nowhere near the author’s original intent. Jepthah lived in a society which was richly populated with pagan culture, and it is my belief that his view of God was affected by this. Jepthah was a “Paganized Yahwist” which I believe is why he did kill his daughter. Had Jepthah really loved God his true desire would have been to honor God. He would have known that human sacrifices would not have been honoring to God (Deut 12:31). Had he been sincere about his commitment to the Lord he could have redeemed his daughter (Lev 27:1-8). It is therefore my conclusion that Jepthah dishonored God by sacrificing his daughter as a human sacrifice.