Jephthah's Daughter

Condemned to death by her father's vow, a girl is rescued by a magical ram, and begins her training at the school of prophets.

Context

• Reference: Judges 11:40

• Another of the Judges, Jephthah, swears that, if he wins an upcoming battle, he will sacrifice the first creature to come through his gate when he returns home.

• When he approaches his home, his daughter rushes out to greet him, and is doomed to die.

Aftermath

• The Bible records that she was indeed sacrificed.

Notes

I knew that I was going to address the story of Jephthah’s daughter at some point. The story had stuck in my mind since I first read it in elementary school, since it seems so incongruous. The version of the story here lessens the incongruity somewhat (though others have approached it elsewhere in ways that highlight its harshness and raise important questions about its context), while connecting it with other stories in the series.

Jephthah’s daughter is one of many women in the Bible whose names are never mentioned, though Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. who took it from Pseudo-Philo, records it as 'Shayla."

The ram from the story of Abraham and Elisheva's epilogue makes an appearance here, though it is earlier in its own timeline than its sacrifice by Abraham.