SEV Biblia, Chapter 11:37
Y volvió a decir a su padre: Concédeme esto: déjame por dos meses que vaya y descienda por los montes, y llore mi virginidad, yo y mis compañeras.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 37. And she said unto her father, let this thing be done for me , etc.] She had but one favour to ask of him, which she thought might be granted, without any breach of the vow: let me alone two months she desired such a space of time might be allowed her before the vow took place; and the rather she might be encouraged to expect that her request would be granted, since no time was fixed by the vow for the accomplishment of it, and since the time she asked was not very long, and the end to be answered not unreasonable that I may go up and down upon the mountains ; or, “ascend upon the mountains” f240 ; Jepthah’s house in Mizpeh being higher than the mountains; or there might be, as Kimchi and Ben Melech note, a valley between that and the mountains, to which she descended in order to go up to the mountains; (see Judges 9:25) these she chose to make her abode, and take her walks in, during the time she asked, as being most fit for retirement and solitude; where she might give up herself to meditation and prayer, and conversation with her fellow virgins she would take with her, and so be wrought up to a greater degree of resignation and submission to her father’s will, and to the will of God in it, as she might suppose: and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows ; the virgins her companions; this she proposed to be the subject that she and her associates would dwell upon, during this time of solitude; and the rather, as this may be thought to be the thing contained in the vow, that as she was a virgin, so she should continue; by which means she would not be the happy instrument of increasing the number of the children of Israel, nor of being the progenitor of the Messiah; upon which accounts it was reckoned in those times to be very grievous and reproachful to live and die without issue, and so matter of lamentation and weeping.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 29-40 - Several important lessons are to be learned from Jephthah's vow. 1 There may be remainders of distrust and doubting, even in the hearts of true and great believers. 2. Our vows to God should not be as purchase of the favour we desire, but to express gratitude to him. 3 We need to be very well-advised in making vows, lest we entangl ourselves. 4. What we have solemnly vowed to God, we must perform, in it be possible and lawful, though it be difficult and grievous to us 5. It well becomes children, obediently and cheerfully to submit to their parents in the Lord. It is hard to say what Jephthah did in performance of his vow; but it is thought that he did not offer his daughter as a burnt-offering. Such a sacrifice would have been a abomination to the Lord; it is supposed she was obliged to remai unmarried, and apart from her family. Concerning this and some othe such passages in the sacred history, about which learned men ar divided and in doubt, we need not perplex ourselves; what is necessar to our salvation, thanks be to God, is plain enough. If the reade recollects the promise of Christ concerning the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and places himself under this heavenly Teacher, the Holy Ghos will guide to all truth in every passage, so far as it is needful to be understood __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ותאמר 559 אל 413 אביה 1 יעשׂה 6213 לי הדבר 1697 הזה 2088 הרפה 7503 ממני 4480 שׁנים 8147 חדשׁים 2320 ואלכה 1980 וירדתי 3381 על 5921 ההרים 2022 ואבכה 1058 על 5921 בתולי 1331 אנכי 595 ורעיתי׃ 7474
