When his daughter came through the house doors, he realized he would have to dedicate *her* to the Lord. This does NOT imply he would kill her, as human sacrifice was an act the Lord specifically forbade, saying he abhorred the practice. Rather, dedicating a child to the Lord meant separating them for service in the temple. An excellent example of this is the story of Samuel.
Sorry, Vicki, but Jephthah killed his daughter. He had promised to sacrifice the first member of his household who came to meet him when he returned victorious from his battle, and since he didn't have a son, he didn't risk having to kill a son. God didn't allow the killing of sons, and there are several examples in the Bible where God either interferes to stop the sacrificing of a son, or severely punishes the father who sacrificed his son. Like I said, sons belonged to God as well as to their fathers, and a father simply had no right to kill his son since God had forbidden this practice.
But, like I said, daughters belonged to their fathers alone, not to God, so the fathers could dispose of them as they pleased.
This is the vow that Jephthah makes to God in Judges 11:31:
31Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
Jephthah talks of offering a member from his household as a 'burnt offering'. A burnt offering means that you kill something or someone and burns it, him or her. Jephthah's daughter was the one who came to meet her father, so she became the burnt offering that Jephthah gave to God. Sorry.
And in Judges 11:39, it says:
39And 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 knew no man.
Jephthah did with his daughter what he had vowed to do; that is, he killed her and burnt her. Sorry. And God, it might be noted, made no objection.
I will admit that the attitude to the sacrificing of daughters slowly change during the course of the Old Testament, so that the later books clearly seem to condemn it. Judges is one of the earlier books, however, and while the death of the girl is described as regrettable, the sacrificing of her is not described as a sin.
As for Hannah, yes, she dedicated her son to God, but she most certainly didn't promise to give him to God as a burnt offering. That would have been a horribly forbidden thing to do - imagine, a lowly
woman murdering her
son, the property of God! Unthinkable!
Ann
