11:29-31
Battle now ensues, and, most importantly, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Jephthah. So he is equipped for the battle. Jephthah knows that he is dependent upon the Lord, but then makes a foolish vow. He says he will sacrifice “whatever comes out of the door of my house when I triumph”. Why did he do this? The “whatever” was almost certainly going to be a person, rather than an animal.
11:32-35
Jephthah went into battle, and the Lord was indeed with him, and gave the Ammonites into his hands. Twenty towns were devastated, and so Ammon was subdued. Jephthah, however, had his vow to fulfil, and who should come out of his house, but his only daughter. This filled Jephthah with horror, for obvious reasons, but he took his vow very seriously. Prov 20:25 says “it is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows”. This is a prime example of this. Deut 23:21-23 is also relevant to the situation.
11:36-40
Jephthah’s daughter responds in what might be seen as an honourable way, telling her father that he must keep his vow. This is a terrible situation. The most plausible reading is that after the two month period that his daughter asked for, he did indeed sacrifice her. There are some who argue that his daughter was allowed to live, but had to remain a virgin, i.e. never to marry. While this may make the incident a little more palatable to us, there are no real grounds for accepting it, and the vow (11:31) was clearly to sacrifice her. The situation can be seen as a severe warning against making rash vows. We should also note that there is no hint that God approved of the vow, nor of it being carried out. The whole situation is tragic.
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