that Jehovah would have connected victory and deliverance with such a horrible crime.

2. In another particular, also, the language of Jephthah's vow is remarkable. It is, that "the outcoming

(whether man or beast) shall be to Jehovah, and I will offer that a burnt-offering." The great Jewish

commentators of the Middle Ages have, in opposition to the Talmud, pointed out that these two last

clauses are not identical. It is never said of an animal burnt-offering, that it "shall be to Jehovah" - for the

simple reason that, as a burnt-offering, it is such. But where human beings are offered to Jehovah, there the

expression is used, as in the case of the first-born among Israel and of Levi (Numbers 3:12, 13). But in these

cases it has never been suggested that there was actual human sacrifice.

3. It was a principle of the Mosaic law, that burnt sacrifices were to be exclusively males (Leviticus 1:3).

4. If the loving daughter had devoted herself to death, it is next to incredible that she should have wished to

spend the two months of life conceded to her, not with her broken-hearted father, but in the mountains with

her companions.

5. She bewails not her "maiden age," but her "maidenhood" - not that she dies so young, but that she is to

die unmarried. The Hebrew expression for the former would have been quite different from that used in

Scripture, which only signifies the latter.299 But for an only child to die unmarried, and so to leave a light and

name extinguished in Israel, was indeed a bitter and heavy judgment, viewed in the light of pre -Messianic

times. Compare in this respect especially such passages as Leviticus 20:20 and Psalm 78:63. The trial appears

all the more withering when we realize, how it must have come upon Jephthah and his only child in the hour

of their highest glory, when all earthly prosperity seemed at their command. The greatest and happiest man

in Israel becomes in a moment the poorest and the most stricken. Surely, in this vow and sacrifice was the

lesson of vows and sacrifices taught to victorious Israel in a manner the most solemn.

6. It is very significant that in 11:39 it is only said, that Jephthah "did with her according to his vow" - not

that he actually offered her in sacrifice, while in the latter case the added clause, "and she knew no man,"

would be utterly needless and unmeaning. Lastly, we may ask, Who would have been the priest by whom,

and where the altar on which, such a sacrifice could have been offered unto Jehovah?

On all these grounds - its utter contrariety to the whole Old Testament, the known piety of Jephthah, the

blessing following upon his vow, his mention in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but especially the language of

the narrative itself - we feel bound to reject the idea of any human sacrifice. In what special manner, besides

remaining unmarried,300 the vow of her dedication to God was carried out, we do not feel bound to suggest.

Here the principle, long ago expressed by Clericus, holds true: "We are not to imagine that, in so small a

volume as the Old Testament, all the customs of the Hebrews are recorded, or the full history of all that had

taken place among them. Hence there are necessarily allusions to many things which cannot be fully

followed out, because there is no mention of them elsewhere."

Yet another trial awaited Jephthah. The tribal jealousy of Ephraim, which treated the Gileadites (more

especially the half tribe of Manasseh) as mere runaways from Ephraim, who had no right to independent

tribal action, scarcely to independent existence - least of all to having one of their number a "Judge," now

burst into a fierce war. Defeated in battle, the Ephraimites tried to escape to the eastern bank of the Jordan;

but Gilead had occupied the fords. Their peculiar pronunciation betrayed Ephraim, and a horrible massacre

Six years of rest - "then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead." W e know

not the locality, nor yet the precise place where he had lived, nor the city in which his body was laid. No

father's home had welcomed him; no child was left to cheer his old age. He lived alone, and he died alone.

Truly, as has been remarked, his sorrow and his victory are a type of Him Who said: "Not my will, but Thine

be done." It almost seems as if Jephthah's three successors in the judgeship of the eastern and northern

tribes were chiefly mentioned to mark the contrast in their history. Of Ibzan of Bethlehem,  301 of Elon the