MDDM vows WAS Re: MDDM Ch. 73

[Doug Millison]

(apologies if this comes through twice; my yahoo account seems to have
gummed up)


Terrance:

[snip some good stuff]


I don't disagree.  I also think that comparing Mason
and Dixon to slaves in chains and whipped by masters
or slave-drivers tends to make the use of the word
"slave" rather meaningless.

I'm a slave to my morning coffee and newspaper.



> Could he have defeated the worm without the oaths?
> Should he have kept his oath and killed his father?
> What is the moral of this hero  story?


"The" moral?  I don't know.  It's an old story.  One
thing is says to me is, promising blood for blood
leads to pain and suffering for all concerned.




Judges 11
[...]
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give
the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of
the door of my house to meet me when I return in
triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD 's, and I
will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and
the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated
twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as
far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who
should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing
to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child.
Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35
When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh!
My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched,
because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot
break."
36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word
to the LORD . Do to me just as you promised, now that
the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the
Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she
said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep
with my friends, because I will never marry."
38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two
months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept
because she would never marry. 39 After the two
months, she returned to her father and he did to her
as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
>From this comes the Israelite custom 40 that each year
the young women of Israel go out for four days to
commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=JUDG+11&language=english&versi
on=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=on