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Document Details :

Title: The Story of Jephthah and his Daughter
Subtitle: Then and Now
Author(s): ROBINSON, Bernard P.
Journal: Biblica
Volume: 85    Issue: 3   Date: 2004   
Pages: 331-348
DOI: 10.2143/BIB.85.3.3194425

Abstract :
In Judges 11 Jephthah is an anti-hero, his rash vow and its implementation being for the Book of Judges symptoms of the defects of pre-monarchical Israel. The daughter is probably sacrificed; the alternative view, that she is consigned to perpetual virginity, has insufficient support in the text. The story speaks still to present-day readers, challenging them not to make ill-considered judgments that may have disastrous consequences; inviting them too to detect a divine purpose working through human beings in their failings as well as their strengths.

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