293
That of the Philistines commences 13:1.
294
I do not suppose that the Ammonites traversed the land, but that they made raids across the fords of
Jordan, and laid waste the contiguous districts.
295
The description is taken from Canon Tristram's Land of Israel, pp. 557, 560.
296
Of course these are round numbers, and not to be regarded as strictly arithmetical.
297
Chemosh - the destroyer or desolater - the Moabite god of war. He is represented on coins with a sword
in his right hand, a spear and lance in his left; the figure being flanked by burning torches.
298
This is the correct rendering, and not "lament," as in our Authorized Version. There was a curious custom
in Israel in the days of our Lord. Twice in the year, "on the 15th of Ab, when the collection of wood for the
sanctuary was completed, and on the Day of Atonement, the maidens of Jerusalem went in white garments,
specially lent them for the purpose, so that rich and poor might be on an equality, into the vineyards close
to the city, where they danced and sung" (see my Temple: its Services and Ministry at the time of Jesus
Christ, p. 286). Could this strange practice have been a remnant of the maidens' praise of the daughter of
Jephthah?
Such is the story; but what is its meaning? What did Jephthah really intend by the language of his vow; and
did he feel himself bound by it in the literal sense to offer up his daughter as a burnt sacrifice? Assuredly,
we shall make no attempt either to explain away the facts of the case, o r to disguise the importance of the
questions at issue. At the outset we are here met by these two facts: that up to that period Jephthah had
both acted and spoken as a true worshipper of Jehovah, and that his name stands emblazoned in that roll of
the heroes of the faith which is handed down to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:32). But it is well-nigh
impossible to believe that a true worshipper of Jehovah could have either vowed or actually offered a human
sacrificed - not to speak of the sacrifice being that of his own and only child. Such sacrifices were the most
abhorrent and opposed to the whole spirit and letter of the Law of God (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5;
Deuteronomy 12:31; 18:10), nor do we find any mention of them till the reigns of the wicked Ahaz and
Manasseh. Not even Jezebel had ventured to introduce them; and we know what thrill of horror ran through
the onlookers, when the heathen king of Moab offered his son an expiatory sacrifice on the walls of his
capital (2 Kings 3:26, etc.). But the d ifficulty becomes well-nigh insuperable, when we find the name of
Jephthah recorded in the New Testament among the heroes of the faith. Surely, no one guilty of such a
crime could have found a place there! Still, these are considerations which, though most important, are
outside the narrative itself, and in any truthful investigation the latter should, in the first place, be studied
by itself.
299
The Hebrew expression is bethulim. If it meant maiden age it would probably, as Keil remarks, have been
neurim (comp. Leviticus 21:13).
300
In general, the Mishnah condemns in unmeasured terms female asceticism (Sotah iii. 4). But in the Talmud
(Sotah 22a) one instance at least is recorded with special praise, in which a virgin wholly devoted herself to
prayer. See Cassel in Herzog's Encylco. 6 p. 475, note.12 Shibboleth means stream, which the Ephraimites
pronounced Sibboleth.
301
The Bethlehem here spoken of is, of course, not that in Judah, but that in Zebulon (Joshua 19:15). The
situation of Ajalon, the modern Salem, quite in the north of Zebulon, and of Pirathon in Ephraim, the modern
Ferata, six miles west of Nablus, has been ascertained.
302
The ordinary Nazarite vow was only for a period. But the later Rabbis distinguish between the ordinary
Nazarite and the "Samson" or life -Nazarite. See my Temple: its Ministry and Service at the time of Christp.
328.