(Heh - not making the mistake of posting this on a Friday night 
)
I’m a Christian, currently reading through the book of Judges. Today I read the story of Jephthah. I’d read/heard the story before, but it kind of sparked some questions in me when I read it today. Here are the relevant bits, with my commentary:
(From The Message translation, for ease of reading)
GD’s Spirit came upon Jephthah. He went across Gilead and Manasseh, went through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there approached the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow before GD: “If you give me a clear victory over the Ammonites, then I’ll give to G*D whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in one piece from among the Ammonites — I’ll offer it up in a sacrificial burnt offering.”
My commentary
It appears to me that, for some reason, Jephthah assumed that the first thing to come out of his house would be an animal.
** /My commentary **
Skipping ahead, Jephthah was victorious in battle, defeating the Ammonites with the help of G*D. Then he goes home:
Jephthah came home to Mizpah. His daughter ran from the house to welcome him home — dancing to tambourines! She was his only child. He had no son or daughter except her. When he realized who it was, he ripped his clothes, saying, “Ah, dearest daughter — I’m dirt. I’m despicable. My heart is torn to shreds. I made a vow to G*D and I can’t take it back!”
She said, “Dear father, if you made a vow to GD do to me what you vowed; GD did his part and saved you from your Ammonite enemies.”
And then she said to her father, “But let this one thing be done for me. Give me two months to wander through the hills and lament my virginity since I will never marry, I and my dear friends.”
“Oh yes, go,” he said. He sent her off for two months. She and her dear girlfriends went among the hills, lamenting that she would never marry. At the end of the two months, she came back to her father. He fulfilled the vow with her that he had made. She had never slept with a man.
It became a custom in Israel that for four days every year the young women of Israel went out to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
My commentary
Wait, what? So he made a human sacrifice of his daughter to GD? That … doesn’t line up with anything else I’ve read. The whole Abraham & Isaac scene from earlier, plus the whole thing with Gd, on multiple occasions, forbidding human sacrifice, made it pretty clear that that sht wasn’t cool with Gd.
The interpretational problem I’m having here comes from the fact that the author of this passage offers no further commentary beyond,
"He fulfilled the vow with her that he had made. She had never slept with a man.
It became a custom in Israel that for four days every year the young women of Israel went out to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite."
So this is where I go with what I’ve read Jewish Dopers saying about Lot sending his daughters out to the crowd of perverts who wanted to rape the angels: “Yeah, why don’t I send out my virgin daughters while I’m at it?” And then look ahead to where Samuel’s mother offered him to G*d, which meant that she dedicated him to temple service. But this story of Jephthah just sort of leaves things hanging.
The story makes it clear that Gd is speaking directly to Jephthah so that Jephthah can hear him (one way or another). When Jephthah made his vow, Gd would have known exactly what would come out of his house when he got home, and would have said, “Whoa, wait, no.”
I’m going with, “Jephthah’s daughter became the first nun.” What is the Jewish interpretation of this passage?
