Jephthah (Judges 11–12) is the eighth of the twelve charismatic/military leaders in the book of Judges. Prior to a crucial battle he vows that if he is successful and returns safely “then the one who comes out of the doors of my house to meet me … shall be offered up by me as a burnt offering to yhwh” (Judg 11:31). It is difficult to know what Jephthah means by these words. The Hebrew verb used (ha-yotzey) in this context could mean equally “the one that comes out,” “whatever comes out,” or “whoever comes out.” In the event it is his only child, a daughter who greets him. Jephthah feels unable to revoke his vow and so appears actually to sacrifice her. This article considers how three sources address this narrative: ancient Rewritten Bibles; early as well as medieval and 18th/19th century Rabbinic commentary; and Contemporary scholarship.
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Castelli, Silvia. 2013. “Jephthah’s Vow” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, vol. 2, edited by L. H.Feldman, J. L.Kugel, and L. H.Schiffman. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
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Commentator’s Bible, Leviticus, The. (Miqra’ot Gedolot). 2009. Edited and translated by M.Carasik. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
Exum, J. Cheryl. 1993a. “Murder They Wrote.” Fragmented Women. Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives. JSOT163. 16–41. [This chapter with the same title also appears in 1990. The Pleasure of Her Text: Feminist Readings of Biblical and Historical Texts,” edited by A. Bach. Philadelphia, PA: Trinity Press International.]
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Feldman, Louis H.1989. Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
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Feldman, Louis H.2013. “Josephus and His Writings,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, vol. 1, edited by L. H.Feldman, J. L.Kugel, and L. H.Schiffman. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
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Jacobson, Howard. 2013. Pseudo Philo, Book of Biblical Antiquities in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, vol. 1, edited by L. H.Feldman, J. L.Kugel, and L. H.Schiffman. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
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Jastrow, Marcus. (1950). A Dictionary of the Targum, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, New York, NY: Pardes.
20.
Koplowitz-Breier, Anat. 2020. “A Nameless Bride of Death: Jephthah’s Daughter in American Jewish Women’s Poetry.”Women and Gender in the Bible and the Biblical World. Open Theology6: 1–14. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opth-2020-0001/html.
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Marcus, David. 1986. Jephthah and His Vow. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech.
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Trible, Phyllis. 1984. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress.
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Zucker, David J.2020. “Romanticizing Samson’s Mother”Women in Judaism15/2: 1–19.
