Judges 11 Summary: 5 Minute Bible Study 

I’m reading through Judges and these outlines help me remember all the specific groups and actions that took place in each chapter. I appreciate you making these. I pray God blesses you as you continue to share this word and witness to others. ❤

Still reading the Bible from beginning to end with your video lesson being part of my morning reading. Thank you for helping my studies and for the " wisdom" I garner from the readings.

I am so grateful for your videos sir! Thank you and may God bless you.

Great job handling the subject matter. We just had the debate in our church, a few weeks ago (maybe a month ago). I believe as a body of believers we grew from it.

I am with you. I believe he did sacrifice her because he promised God, but it wasn’t something that God honored. Your application is right on point (per usual). I wanted to dedicate the first 3 days of every month to fasting but I don’t want to say that and then not do it. So as the months come I just do it instead of telling God this is what I will always do. Do you think that is okay?

Thanks I really need this 😄

Interesting but beyond my pay grade. Great job!

GREAT WORK ❤ PRAISE THE LORD

Thank you

didn’t God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac ? I believe so. It was to test Abraham’s faith that God would stay true to his promise. Even though he finally got his promise of a son, God asked him to give it up. Then an angel stopped him after he proved he would do it and trust that God would raise him from the dead.

Amen n thank u❤❤❤

Thanknyou

How about Abraham offer isaac?

Your take is valid but I get the feeling that more in being said

It would be really scary to make a foolish promise like that😭

I agree with you :((😮

Something I believe we are all missing here...Jephthah did not say he was making a "vow" but rather a "vowel"...thus being the letter "O" as in "O, there's my sweet daughter, out to greet me!"

That was a tough vow😅

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) - “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Of course Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, it was a hasty commitment he made but he still a righteous man as Paul said because the Bible say Matthew 5:33 King James Version 33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: God didn’t tell him to do it. It does show Jephthah faith by honoring his own promise.

Very disturbing story 😮. God bless 🙏

That ending to that chapter was pretty shocking. I believe he did sacrifice her based off 2 specific verses from the King James Bible I am using "Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." (Judges 11:31) "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel. That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year." (Judges 11:39-40)

Quick question: why would the Lord help him win the battle if he knew it would lead him to sacrificing his own daughter "in the name of God"? I know God wanted Israel be free. Curious.

In Hebrews 11:32 Jephthah is listed with an imposing group of men from the OT. After describing the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses the author, then gives a short list of other giants of the faith from history, including Jephthah. "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets; who through faith subdued Kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." Jephthah is included with a powerful group here. Could he reasonably be included in this list as a child sacrificer? The text clearly indicates Jephtha's knowledge of the scriptures and he and his daughter would have been keenly aware of the Ten Commandment; Thou shalt not kill, and Honor your mother and your father. Judges 11 verses 37, 38 and 39 speak of Jephthah's daughter's virginity and his vow. This is no coincidence. She was his only daughter. He sacrificed his legacy. he would have no heirs. Verse 40 goes on to describe Jephthah's daughter's legacy of a tradition from then on by the daughters of Israel to "lament" her for four days a year. This is the only occasion in the bible that the Hebrew word "tanah" is translated as lament; tanah meaning to celebrate, commemorate, and praise. It strains credulity that child sacrifice would be celebrated in these ways. Jephthah's daughter sacrificed her life as did Samuel being given to the Lord and giving up a family and a normal existence. Just prior to Jephthah making his vow to the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Child sacrifice was not part of the Spirit of the Lord. Deuteronomy 18:10 "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, " Even though it is easy to make the implication that Jephthah tore his clothes as a sign of mourning, a closer look at the practice reveals it was also "an expression of an inner feeling of imminent danger." As written in "Tearing of clothes: A study of an ancient practice in the Old Testament " Verbum et Ecclesia ISSN: (Online) 2074-7705, (Print) 1609-9982 If we read Jephthah's vow with the conjunction "or" instead of "and" the alternative to child sacrifice is much more plausible. This is the choice of The Literal Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation, as well as A Faithful Version of the Bible. All agree that there is no direct evidence in the scripture that he murdered his own daughter. That alone should lead us to the truth of the story. In short, it is in my opinion bad theology to interpret Judges 11 in light of child sacrifice.

God specifically said DO NOT KILL. So why would he?

It's too easy to assume a human sacrifice. God does not delight in this. The Abrahamic call to sacrifice was a test, there was not an intent for human sacrifice. What the daughter in this case sacrificed was her motherhood. Why else would she go lament her virginity if she was to be killed? That makes no sense. When Hannah "sacrificed" her son to the Lord, it was symbolic in the sense that she gave him up to God, holding nothing back. I refuse to believe that it was to be an acceptable sacrifice to God. That would be a waste and the father would be guilty of murder. God listens to the vow and would not let it go to waste. We are God's totally. We must not hold anything back, even the carrying on of future generations.

You state that the lord never commanded human sacrifice but he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Genesis 22 verse 2.