Quick Question: What's Going on with Jephtha's Sacrifice?

Dear Apologist, I thought God does not want human sacrifice, but then I learned one of the Old Testament heroes sacrificed his daughter to God.  Why was that allowed?


The eleventh chapter of Judges tells us the tragic story of Jephtha, a Hebrew warrior who was called into service to lead Israel’s defense against the Ammonites.  Starting in verse 29, the text recounts how, prior to the decisive battle, Jephtha makes an oath to God to offer in sacrifice the first thing to exit his house upon his return.  To be fair, he probably thought this would be one of his livestock milling about the first floor of his home.

However, to his horror, it ended up being his daughter.  Now he regarded himself as being bound by oath to offer her in human sacrifice to God.  Now, some people will say the text is ambiguous about whether he went through with it.  But it isn’t.  Verse 39 makes it absolutely clear that he followed through.

Critics of the Bible will present this as an example of God’s cruelty or inconsistency.  However, this critique carries the assumption that this act was presented in the text in a positive light.  What if it isn’t?  What if this is something which the reader is -supposed- to be horrified by?

One passage which sheds light on this quandary is the final summarizing sentence of the book of Judges:

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” - Judges 21:15

The picture this book paints of this era in Israel’s history is a time of great heroes, but also a time of profound moral anarchy.  Therefore, it would seem we’re to regard Jephtha is in a similarly conflicted way.  He was a man of great heroism, but also someone who lacked proper guidance.

In the end, he did the wrong thing for the right reason.