Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave
From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Playing games with G-d II - Jephthah's daughter - commentary
Message-ID: <1924@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Aug-83 00:23:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1924
Posted: Wed Aug 10 00:23:41 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Aug-83 02:59:15 EDT
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 30

The well-known Soncino Books of the Bible series, a 14-volume edition
of the Tanach in Hebrew with English translation and commentaries,
has the following to say (commentary on the Book of Judges by Judah
J. Slotki, M.A., Ph.D.):

		(Judges 11:36) "And she said unto him: `My father ... do
		unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy
		mouth'"
	The words make it evident that a dreadful fate was in store for
	her. What exactly it was is not told. Expositors differ on this
	point; but that she became a human sacrifice is by no means
	certain. The Israelite ethical code was strictly opposed to it;
	and it is probable that, even if her father had intended it, the
	people would have prevented it, as they saved the life of Jonathan
	(cf. I Sam. xiv. 45).

		(11:39) "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 had not
		known man."
	A veil is drawn over the final scene. Jephthah is said to have
	built a house for her in which she lived a solitary life until
	she died (Kimchi).

[Kimchi is David Kimchi, 1160-1235, rabbinic commentator]


Dave Sherman, Toronto
-- 
 {linus,cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!dave