Judges chapter 21

After reading chapter 21:

* We have finally reached the last chapter of Judges! The story of the last two chapters continues: Back at the beginning of chapter 20, when the Israelites gathered at Mizpah, apparently they made a solemn oath to Yahweh that not one of them would ever give a daughter to a Benjamite in marriage. Now, after the battle, they are again at Bethel, where they are bewailing the loss of one of the tribes of Israel. Really? They purposefully conducted a battle in which over 65,000 armed men, and whole towns full of people,plus their animals, were killed, and now they are grieving for the lost tribe of Benjamin? They ask why this should have happened! Good question. A little too late, though.

*The next day they built an altar (Isn't that a no-no? Or does this story take place before that restriction?) and presented burnt offerings to Yahweh. Then they asked who wasn't present in the roll call of the tribes of Israel at Mizpah. (As if they didn't know.) Those people "deserved" to be put to death. Show up or die. Well, in chapter 20 we saw that the Benjamite tribe wasn't there, so I guess the implication is that they deserved to die. In spite of that, the Israelites are now worried about how the remaining Benjamites will get wives, since they vowed not to give them their daughters as wives. Not to mention, all the Benjamite women have been killed...by the Israelites. The mind boggles.

*Somehow, the Israelites realized that no one from Jabesh Gilead had been represented at the assembly in Mizpah either. (Maybe they didn't get the memo.) So, the Israelites sent 12,000 armed men to Jabesh Gilead. Guess what they did. They slaughtered every living human, men, women, and children......except the virgin young women. They took them to the camp at Shiloh. (Wait a minute, I thought they were assembled at Mizpah. Or was it Bethel?) Why? To give them to the remaining Benjamites as wives! Problem solved. Well, almost.

*Next, the assembly sent a message of peace to the remaining Benjamites who were in hiding. The Benjamites returned and were given the young women of Jabesh Gilead as a consolation prize. How nice. (???) There was a problem, though. There were not enough young women to go around. Awkward. Everyone was sad for the Benjamites. The Benjamites needed heirs so that a tribe of Israel would not be wiped out. (And whose fault was that?) That pesky oath was preventing the Israelites from giving the Benjamites wives. They didn't want to be cursed for breaking the oath. That would not be good.

*Not to worry, they had a solution. They instructed the Benjamites who were still single to go to the annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh. While there, they were to hide in the vinyards, waiting and watching for the girls of Shiloh to come out and join the dancing. Then, they were to rush out and seize a wife and take her back to the land of Benjamin. (Where have I heard a story like this before? ) When the fathers and brothers complained, they were asked to be kind and help out the Benjamites, because they didn't have wives after the war. Plus, technically, the oath was not broken, because they didn't give away the girls, they were taken.  Then the Benjamites rebuilt their towns, and everyone else went home. The end.

Judges chapter 11 part 2

*Starting in verse 29, Jephthah gets that mysterious "Spirit of the lord (Yahweh)" He took his army to attack the Ammonites. Then he made a vow to Yahweh that, if he had the victory over the Ammonites, he would offer the first thing that came out of the door of his house as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh. The spirit of the lord should have told him that was a bad idea, but maybe it was sleeping at the time.

*Jephthah fought the Ammonites and won. He also destroyed twenty of their towns, effectively subduing them. So, Jephthah went home. What was the first thing that came out of his house? His beloved daughter, an only child. Naturally, he was distraught. He told his daughter about his vow, which was apparently unbreakable. Couldn't Yahweh have absolved him of it? I guess it wasn't top on his list of things to do that day. His daughter agreed that the vow could not be broken. (That makes for a better story than if she didn't agree and Jephthah had to force her to be sacrificed.) She only asked to be allowed to spend two months roaming the hills and weeping with her friends, because she would never marry. We all know that if a girl doesn't have a husband in this life,  she doesn't have anything.

*So, she went off for two months and then came back home so her father could do what he promised. "And he did to her as he vowed." Let's be clear. He offered her as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh, and Yahweh was ok with that. Some people will try to argue that it was just a metaphorical sacrifice, or they will rationalize the event in other ways. That is only to ease their own discomfort at this passage. There is no reason to think that this is anything other than what it appears to be, a blood sacrifice.

*For some reason, importance is attached to the claim that Jephthah's daughter was a virgin. Every year in her remembrance, young women of Israel went out for four days. Those four days of freedom were probably well spent. If it happened, which is doubtful. Even my study bible says there is no other evidence of this custom, so it must have just been a local one. (Or nonexistent.)

Numbers chapter 30

After reading chapter 30:

*This chapter is about vows to Yahweh, or pledges and obligations. A man who makes a vow must keep it completely. A woman who makes a vow must keep it, unless her husband or father forbids it at any time, then it becomes nullified. However, if he nullifies her vow some time after it has been made, he is responsible for her guilt, as if that actually means anything.

* You may ask why a husband or father would want to nullify a vow made by a woman. My guess is because it affects him personally. A woman could vow never to marry, or to refrain from sex if married. She might vow to give away personal possessions or money that the man has an interest in. She might also vow to spend all her days in prayer, not attending to household matters. Notice that a woman can not nullify a husband's vow, which is no surprise, considering it was a patriarchical society.