Yiftach Vow No Victory Parade From Door of My House
“And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented the LORD because of their groaning by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them.” Could it be that Yiftach in his generation is like Shemuel in his generation? Yiftach Vow to God said: ‘if you will completely surrender Benei Amon into my hands, then he that shall go forth from the portals of my house to greet me when I return in peace from Benei Amon will be for God, and I shall offer him as a burnt offering!’ (Shoftim 11:29-31). In the end, tragically enough, it is Yiftach’s own daughter who greets him upon his triumphant return from battle.
The puzzle of this tragedy that clearly Yiftach did not intend for his daughter to become a human sacrifice, however the language and culture where he made the commitment made it seemingly impossible to avoid carrying out what he promised.
Yiftach Vow was for Human Sacrifice — Rabbi Yaakov Meidan Explains Why
Rabbi Ya’acov Meidan teaches that Yiftach clearly intended a pledge to a human sacrifice. Much like King Saul who made a vow and his son Jonathan did not hear the vow. The purpose of the vow was to ensure a particular behavior. In the case of King Saul, it was to defeat the Philistines. What was the intention of offering a human sacrifice by Yiftach? And why couldn’t Yiftach get his vow annulled when it turned against his intention?
Rabbi Meidan teaches that a funeral procession starts from a person’s house. Likewise a victory parade starts from a person’s house.
Yiftach Vow: Death Wish is Method of Laying Down a Prohibition
He teaches that prior to Yiftach engaging in war against the Ammonites, Yiftach made his vow. Yiftach vow was that no victory parades will commence from my house.
In that context, it falls into line of a long series of vows and commitments that human leaders in war don’t take credit for God’s victories. For example, Joshua’s victory over Jericho leads to a prohibition to rebuild that city phrased as a death wish: “And Joshua charged the people with an oath at that time, saying: Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city, even Jericho; with the loss of his first-born shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.” Yet, the Tanakh doesn’t fault Joshua for his prohibition-turned-death wish coming true, “In his [Israel King Ahab’s] days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; with Abiram his first-born he laid the foundation thereof, and with his youngest son Segub he set up the gates thereof; according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun.”
Yiftach Vow: Elders of Gilead Hated Yiftach but LORD as Witness to be head over Gilead
Was Yiftach vow spontaneous between him and God (as normally portrayed) or was Yiftach vow part of the negotiations between him and the leaders of Gil’ad?
Rabbi Yaakov Meidan teaches that Yiftach engaged in a very tense negotiation with the elders of Gilead: “And they said unto Jephthah: Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: Did not ye hate me, and drive me out of my fathers house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: Therefore are we returned to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon, and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: If ye bring me back home to fight with the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, I will be your head. And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: The LORD shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.” The elders of Gilead made a vow before the LORD that Yiftach would remain their head even after the battle with the Ammonites.
Immediately after Yiftach vow, the Hebrew Bible tells of the decisive victory: So “Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hand. And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto Abel-cheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.”
The text does not say that Yiftach replied with his vow that the victory will be that of Gilead and not a personal victory of Yiftach. It does not say that the Elders pressed him to make a vow to give that pledge divine force of law. The Hebrew states that she was alone: “his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances.” Yet, somehow he feels that he can’t just give her a hug and go inside his house as though nothing happened: “When he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said: Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art become my troubler; for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.”
The pain that Yiftach felt may have echoed Abraham: “And Abram said: ‘O Lord GOD, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go hence childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is my servant Eliezer?'”
Rabbi Meidan teaches that had Yiftach gone to the Elders of Gilead to annul his vow, they would have gladly annulled their commitment to place him as leader.
Yiftach Vow: When Abraham Defeated the Four Kings including Chedorlaomer king of Elam
When Abraham Defeated the Four Kings including Chedorlaomer king of Elam, he relinquishes his position and refuses to be enriched: “I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor aught that is thine, lest thou shouldest say: I have made Abram rich.” Yet, Rabbi Yoel Ben Nun says that Abraham may be a wanted man. No entourage. That’s why the LORD promises to serve as his shield: “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, thy reward shall be exceeding great.'” Yiftach’s instinct to renounce glory for the victory parallels Abraham’s approach.
Yiftach’s story is Abraham’s story, upside down. Everything went wrong. Yiftach smote twenty cities. Imagine how much bounty, slaves and territory, Gilead received. The text tells us of the immense spoils only indirectly: “And the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed to Zaphon; and they said unto Jephthah: Wherefore didst thou pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thy house upon thee with fire.”
Yiftach Vow: “go out” from “the opening of my house” “towards me” would be a human
In support of Rabbi Yaakov Meidan’s approach, Rav Michael Hattin in his class Introduction To The Prophets at Yeshivat Har Etzion, posits that Yiftach vow knew that whatever would “go out” from “the opening of my house” “towards me” would be a human, potentially a family member. He shows that each of those word choices when applied elsewhere in Tanakh are in the human rather than animal context. In fact, Rav Hattin states: “Yiftach DID NOT intend at all to offer an animal as sacrifice to God upon his return, but rather another HUMAN BEING! When he states that ‘if you will completely surrender Benei Amon into my hands, then he that shall go forth from the portals of my house to greet me when I return in peace from Benei Amon will be for God, and I shall offer him as a burnt offering!’ he is not referring to a lower creature, but rather to a person. The first person, says Yiftach, that shall come forth from my home, passing the threshold of the doorway, shall be dedicated to God as a burnt offering!”
Yiftach Vow: Absent Divine Intervention Yiftach Goes Postal 42,000 Israelites Dead
After losing his only daughter in essentially a power battle with the Elders of Gilead, the victory over twenty cities becomes overshadowed with grief.
Yiftach in his anguish, to the Yiftach vow, responds to the challenge by tribe of Ephraim by slaughtering forty-two thousand of his fellow Israelites. “And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites; and it was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said: Let me go over, the men of Gilead said unto him: Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said: Nay; then said they unto him: Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he could not frame to pronounce it right; then they laid hold on him, and slew him at the fords of the Jordan; and there fell at that time of Ephraim forty and two thousand.”
We learn that some Judges are with the LORD and the LORD is with them. However, the book of Judges tells exemplary stories of collective importance for how the Israelites live in their own tribal society without coherent moral leadership. Typically, the lack of unity leads to subjugation by foreigners. However in this case, it led to the slaughter of tens of thousands of Israelites at the hands of another Israelite tribe that spoke with a different accent.