Jephthah. Jephthah, appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years. According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, and, as his mother is described as a prostitute, this may indicate that his father might have been any of the men of that area. Jephthah led the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, in exchange for defeating the Ammonites, made a vow to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. When his daughter was the first to come out of the house, he immediately regretted the vow, which would require him to sacrifice his daughter to God. Jephthah then carried out his vow, though some commentators have disputed as to whether or not the sacrifice was actually carried out. Traditionally, Jephthah is listed among major judges because of the length of the biblical narrative referring to him, but his story also shares features with those of the minor judges, such as his short tenure, only six years, in office. Judges in the Bible Italics indicate individuals not explicitly described as judges Book of Joshua Joshua. Book of Judges Othniel. Ehud. Shamgar. Deborah. Gideon. Abimelech. Tola. Jair. Jephthah. Ibzan. Elon. Abdon. Samson. First Book of Samuel Eli. Samuel. v. t. e. The story of Jephthah is found in the Old Testament Book of Judges, chapters 11-12. The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites. Jephthah, having been born illegitimately, is driven out by his half-brothers and takes up his dwelling in Tob, east of Gilead. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him. The elders of Gilead ask him to be their leader in the campaign against the Ammonites, but he holds out for a more permanent and a broader position, and the elders agree that, provided Jephthah succeeds in defeating Ammon, he will be their permanent chieftain. On behalf of Israel as a whole and in reliance on the might of God the Judge, Jephthah challenges the Ammonites. Jephthah swears an oath:. and whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the L's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering., Judges 11:31, English Standard Version The victorious Jephthah is met on his return by his only child, a daughter. Jephthah tears his clothes and cries, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! but is bound by his vow: I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow. The girl asks for two months' grace, .that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity. And so Jephthah did with her according to his vow that he had made. The story ends by recounting how the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in the year. Later, Jephthah was forced to fight against the Ephraimites, who refused to aid him in his struggle against the Ammonites. The story is remembered for the killing of the fugitive Ephraimites who were identified by their accent; they said the Hebrew word shibboleth as sibboleth. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter stands in stark contrast to the Binding of Isaac in the Book of Genesis, in which Abraham was about to perform a divinely-ordered sacrifice of his son, when an angel of God directly intervened and stopped the sacrifice. There was no intervention in the case of Jephthah's daughter who was, contrary to Mosaic law, given as a burnt offering. Unlike other instances of burnt offerings that were in fact in line with Mosaic law, there is no divine acknowledgement of this offering. Some writers have observed that the Israelites of the time were decidedly barbarous; that Mosaic law was at this time widely disrespected; and that there are several other examples of rash vows to God with similarly terrible consequences. Of course, the barbarism of the Israelites says nothing about why the God of the Bible would accept a child sacrifice. David Janzen argued that the story was an integral part of the Deuteronomist picture of moral decline through adoption of non-Israelitic practices such as child sacrifice. Solomon Landers believed that the absence of express judgement implies that the sacrifice was not acceptable to God, notwithstanding the fact that the sacrifice nevertheless happened.