Tafsiran Hakim-hakim 11:32: Tze'enah Ure'enah

“Jephtah crossed over to the Ammonites” [11:32]. The Holy One gave Ammon into the hands of Jephtah and he defeated them. Those who were left alive were subservient to and dependent on Israel. When Jephtah came home, his daughter came out to greet him with drums and dancing. She did not have a husband. Jephtah tore his clothes when his daughter came to meet him. He said to her: my dear daughter, I made a vow that whoever would come to me from my house, I would offer as a sacrifice. His daughter said to him. Let me wander on the mountains and let me mourn my virginity and my maidenhood for two months. Her father sent her for two months and she cried over her virginity and that she should die in this way. She returned home to her father who fulfilled his vow.

Some sages say that he did not slaughter his daughter as a sacrifice, but she cried and remained single all her life. She could not marry a husband since she was sanctified to God. If one wants to ask a question, Jephtah did say that which would encounter me first; I will bring it as a sacrifice. The explanation is that Jephtah said, if something that is appropriate for a sacrifice will greet me, I will slaughter it. If something will come that is not appropriate for a sacrifice, I will sanctify it and not slaughter it. That is why his daughter had to sit alone, without a husband, and the daughters of Israel lamented the fate of Jephtah’s daughter every year.⁴According to Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 6: 203, n. 109, this idea first appears in medieval commentators, like Radak, Judges, 11:39–40.

The Rabbati writes. There was Phinehas who could have annulled the vow. The explanation is that Jephtah was very arrogant and did not want to go to Phinehas. Phinehas was also arrogant and because of this Jephtah’s daughter was lost. The Holy One punished Jephtah in that his flesh fell off his body and Phinehas’ prophetic status was removed from him.⁵Genesis Rabbah, 60.3; Yalkut Shimoni, Judges, Remez, 68.