Judges 11 · a question people ask
"Who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed" (11:39). What did Jephthah do to his daughter?
The text doesn't describe it. It says that he vowed that whatever came out to meet him "shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering" (11:31); that his daughter came out to meet him (11:34); that she asked for two months to "bewail my virginity" (11:37); that at the end of two months "she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin" (11:39); and that "the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year" (11:40). Both readings below take every one of these verses as true. Christians read 11:39 in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
She was offered as a burnt offering
Those who hold this view start from the words of the vow: "it shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering" (11:31). They note that Jephthah said, "I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I can’t go back" (11:35), that his daughter said, "do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth" (11:36), and that the text says he "did with her according to his vow which he had vowed" (11:39). They read 11:39 as saying he did what 11:31 said, and her two months of mourning her virginity (11:37-38) as mourning that she would die unmarried. They note that Judges often records what people did without approving it; twice it says, "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (17:6, 21:25).
Judges 11:31 · Judges 11:35-36 · Judges 11:37-39 · Judges 17:6 · Judges 21:25
She was given to the LORD and lived unmarried
Those who hold this view start from what she mourned: she asked to "bewail my virginity" (11:37), and "mourned her virginity on the mountains" (11:38). They note that right after "who did with her according to his vow", the verse adds, "She was a virgin" (11:39), and they read that as what the vow meant for her: a life given to the LORD, unmarried. They read "it shall be the LORD’s" (11:31) in the light of the Law's vows of persons, "When a man consecrates a person to the LORD in a vow" (Leviticus 27:2), and they note that the Law forbade offering children: "they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:31), and "There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" (Deuteronomy 18:10).
Judges 11:37-39 · Judges 11:31 · Leviticus 27:2 · Deuteronomy 12:31 · Deuteronomy 18:10
The verses
“Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.””
“Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.”
“Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.” He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.”