Seila, Jephthah’s Daughter: A Sacrifice Like Isaac

Before Jephthah leads the Israelites into battle against the Ammonites, he vows that he will make a sacrifice to YHWH if YHWH ensures the Ammonites’ defeat:

‏^{שׁפטים יא:ל} וַיִּדַּר יִפְתָּח נֶדֶר לַי־הוָה וַיֹּאמַר אִם נָתוֹן תִּתֵּן אֶת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן בְּיָדִי. ^יא:לא וְהָיָה הַיּוֹצֵא אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִדַּלְתֵי בֵיתִי לִקְרָאתִי בְּשׁוּבִי בְשָׁלוֹם מִבְּנֵי עַמּוֹן וְהָיָה לַי־הוָה וְהַעֲלִיתִהוּ עוֹלָה.

^{Judg 11:30} And Jephthah made the following vow to YHWH: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, ^11:31 then whatever (אֲשֶׁ֨ר) comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be YHWH’s and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering.”^[1]

Since the early Israelites, like other peoples in antiquity, often shared their living space with livestock, Jephthah likely intended to offer up an animal, as the phrase “burnt offering” suggests.^[2] The creature who greets him first upon his success, however, is not an animal but his only child, his daughter:

^{שׁפטים יא:לד} וַיָּבֹא יִפְתָּח הַמִּצְפָּה אֶל בֵּיתוֹ וְהִנֵּה בִתּוֹ יֹצֵאת לִקְרָאתוֹ בְתֻפִּים וּבִמְחֹלוֹת וְרַק הִיא יְחִידָה אֵין לוֹ מִמֶּנּוּ בֵּן אוֹ בַת.

^{Judg 11:34} When Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, with timbrel and dance! She was an only child; he had no other son or daughter.

When Jephthah sees her coming out of the house, he is grieved, because he cannot renege on his vow:

^{שׁפטים יא:לה} וַיְהִי כִרְאוֹתוֹ אוֹתָהּ וַיִּקְרַע אֶת בְּגָדָיו וַיֹּאמֶר אֲהָהּ בִּתִּי הַכְרֵעַ הִכְרַעְתִּנִי וְאַתְּ הָיִיתְ בְּעֹכְרָי וְאָנֹכִי פָּצִיתִי פִי אֶל יְ־הוָה וְלֹא אוּכַל לָשׁוּב.

^{Judg 11:35} On seeing her, he rent his clothes and said, “Alas, daughter! You have brought me low; you have become my troubler! For I have uttered a vow to YHWH and I cannot retract.”

His daughter agrees that he must keep his vow:

^{שׁפטים יא:לו} וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אָבִי פָּצִיתָה אֶת־פִּיךָ אֶל יְ־הוָה עֲשֵׂה לִי כַּאֲשֶׁר יָצָא מִפִּיךָ אַחֲרֵי אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ יְ־הוָה נְקָמוֹת מֵאֹיְבֶיךָ מִבְּנֵי עַמּוֹן.

^{Judg 11:36} “Father,” she said, “you have uttered a vow to YHWH; do to me as you have vowed, seeing that YHWH has vindicated you against your enemies, the Ammonites.”

Yet she also requests a reprieve for two months so that she may lament her virginity:^[3]

^{שׁפטים יא:לז} וַתֹּאמֶר אֶל אָבִיהָ יֵעָשֶׂה לִּי הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה הַרְפֵּה מִמֶּנִּי שְׁנַיִם חֳדָשִׁים וְאֵלְכָה וְיָרַדְתִּי עַל הֶהָרִים וְאֶבְכֶּה עַל בְּתוּלַי אָנֹכִי וְרֵעְיֹתָי [וְרֵעוֹתָי].

^{Judg 11:37} She further said to her father, “Let this be done for me: let me be for two months, and I will go with my companions and wander the mountains and bewail my virginity.”

Her request is granted, and after two months she returns home. The story implies that Jephthah then slaughters his daughter as a burnt offering:^[4]

‏^{שׁפטים יא:לט} וַיְהִי מִקֵּץ שְׁנַיִם חֳדָשִׁים וַתָּשָׁב אֶל אָבִיהָ וַיַּעַשׂ לָהּ אֶת נִדְרוֹ אֲשֶׁר נָדָר....

^{Judg 11:39a} At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made.

The offering is apparently acceptable to YHWH; after all, Jephthah does win in his battle against the Ammonites. The narrative ends with a note about an annual custom of mourning for Jephthah’s daughter:^[5]

‏^{שׁפטים יא:לט} ...וְהִיא לֹא יָדְעָה אִישׁ וַתְּהִי חֹק בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. ^יא:מ מִיָּמִים יָמִימָה תֵּלַכְנָה בְּנוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל לְתַנּוֹת לְבַת יִפְתָּח הַגִּלְעָדִי אַרְבַּעַת יָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה.

^{Judg 11:39b} She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that ^11:40 for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

The story is disturbing to many readers—today as well as in antiquity: How could a father do this? How could YHWH allow it? Drawing on a rabbinic law that a court can nullify a vow, the midrash Genesis Rabbah (ca. 5^th century C.E.) blames her death on the pride of Jephthah and of the high priest, Phineas, each of whom fail to approach the other:

^{בראשית רבה ס:ג} אֶלָּא פִּינְחָס אָמַר הוּא צָרִיךְ לִי וַאֲנִי אֵלֵךְ אֶצְלוֹ, וְיִפְתָּח אָמַר אֲנִי רֹאשׁ קְצִינֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַאֲנִי הוֹלֵךְ לִי אֵצֶל פִּינְחָס, בֵּין דֵּין לְדֵין אָבְדָה הַנַּעֲרָה הַהִיא... וּשְׁנֵיהֶם נֶעֶנְשׁוּ בְּדָמֶיהָ.

^{Genesis Rabbah 60:3} However, Phineas said: “He needs me, why should I go to him?” Jephthah said: “I am the head of the Israelites, why should I go to Phineas?” Between the two of them the girl was lost… and both of them were punished for her blood.^[6]

Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum) instead expands YHWH’s role and gives more voice and agency to the daughter.

God Punishes Jephthah for His Vow

Biblical Antiquities, written ca. 1^st century C.E., expansively retells Israelite history from Adam to the death of Saul.^[7] In its version of this story, God is angry at Jephthah for his rash promise, which has left open the possibility that an unacceptable animal will be sacrificed:

^{Biblical Antiquities 39:11} God grew angry and said, “Behold Jephthah has vowed that he will offer to me whatever meets him first. Now if a dog should meet Jephthah first, will the dog be offered to me?”^[8]

While still promising to save the Israelites against the Ammonites, God punishes Jephthah by designating his only child to be the sacrifice:

^{Biblical Antiquities 39:11} “Now let Jephthah’s vow be accomplished upon his own first-born, that is, upon the fruit of his own belly, and let his request be upon his only-begotten daughter. I however will free my people at this time, not on his account but because of the prayer that Israel prayed.”^[9]

Thus, Jephthah’s daughter is a “divinely-ordained sacrifice,”^[10] chosen not by random chance, but by God.

Among the ancient texts, only Pseudo-Philo gives Jephthah’s daughter a name.^[11] Jephthah mentions her by name when he proclaims his distress after he returns home and he sees his daughter leading the women out of his house to celebrate his success:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:1} When Jephthah saw her, he grew faint and said, “Rightly was your name called Seila, that you would be offered in sacrifice.”^[12]

Seila’s name likely derives from the feminine version of the Hebrew root שאל, “ask,” so Seila would mean “the one asked for or requested.”^[13]

Jephthah’s Daughter Is Inspired by the Binding of Isaac

In a lengthy speech agreeing that her father must fulfill his vow, Seila draws an explicit parallel to the Akedah (Gen 22), where God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:2} Seila his daughter said to him, “Who is there who would be sad to die, seeing the people freed? Or have you forgotten what happened in the days of our fathers when the father placed the son as a burnt offering, and he did not dispute him but gladly gave consent to him, and the one being offered was ready and the one who was offering was rejoicing?”^[14]

Though the idea that Isaac is a willing participant in the offering is not explicitly present in the biblical narrative, it appears in later interpretations of the Akedah, especially in the Targumim (expanded Aramaic translations of the Bible) from the land of Israel.^[15] Genesis Rabbah as well depicts Isaac encouraging Abraham to bind him well so that he will not flinch from the knife:

^{בראשית רבה נו:ח} אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ אַבְרָהָם לַעֲקֹד יִצְחָק בְּנוֹ, אָמַר לוֹ אַבָּא בָּחוּר אֲנִי וְחוֹשֵׁשַׁנִי שֶׁמָּא יִזְדַּעֲזַע גּוּפִי מִפַּחֲדָהּ שֶׁל סַכִּין וַאֲצַעֲרֶךָ, וְשֶׁמָּא תִּפָּסֵל הַשְּׁחִיטָה וְלֹא תַעֲלֶה לְךָ לְקָרְבָּן, אֶלָּא כָּפְתֵנִי יָפֶה יָפֶה.

^{Genesis Rabbah 56:8} Rabbi Yitzḥak said: When Abraham sought to bind Isaac his son, he said to him: “Father, I am a young man, and I am concerned that my body will tremble due to fear of the knife, and I will [thereby] upset you, or perhaps the slaughter will [thereby] be rendered unfit and it will not be counted for you as a valid offering. Therefore, bind me very well.”^[16]

In requesting a delay before Jephthah fulfills his vow, Seila makes clear that she will grieve not over her own death, but over being caught by her father’s ill-considered vow:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:3} “The trees of the field will weep for me, and the beasts of the field will lament for me. For I am not sad that I am going to die nor does it pain me to give back my soul, but because my father was trapped by his vow.”^[17]

She closes by expressing her concern that if she does not consent to be sacrificed, then God will not accept the offering, and her death will be meaningless:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:3} “If I will not offer myself willingly for sacrifice, I fear that my death would not be acceptable and I would lose my life to no purpose. These things I will tell the mountains, and afterwards I will return.”^[18]

Seila Is Willing, but Not Passive

Yet despite her stated intention (40:3), Seila does not use the delay simply to lament. Unlike her father, she goes to the wise elders seeking a loophole or way around Jephthah’s vow:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:4} Seila the daughter of Jephthah, she and her virgin companions, set out and came and reported to the wise men of the people, and no one could respond to her word.^[19]

God, however, as an active participant in Pseudo-Philo’s version of the narrative, keeps the wise ones from speaking at all:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:4} Afterwards she came to Mount Telag,^[20] and the Lord thought of her by night and said, “Behold now I have shut up the tongue of the wise men of my people in this generation so that they cannot respond to the word of Jephthah’s daughter, in order that my word be fulfilled and my plan that I thought out not be foiled.”^[21]

Nevertheless, God praises Seila’s wisdom in choosing to be a willing sacrifice:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:4} “I have seen that she is wiser than her father and that the virgin is smarter than all the wise men who are here. Now let her soul be given up in accord with her request, and her death will be precious before me always, and she will go and depart into the bosom of her mothers.”^[22]

In other words, unlike a dog or another non-kosher animal that Jephthah might have offered, God pronounces Seila a worthy offering. Her demise is further softened by the assurance that she will go to be with her mothers (her female ancestors) when she dies.

Following this scene, Seila offers a poetic lamentation, reflecting on the bridal experiences that she will miss:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:6} I have not been satisfied by my marriage chamber nor have I been sated with the garlands of my wedding. I was not clothed in splendor in accord with my nobility, and I have not used myrrh and perfume, and my soul has not enjoyed the oil of anointing that was prepared for me. O mother, in vain have you borne your only daughter, since the underworld has become my bridal chamber.^[23]

After calling for her bridal accoutrements to be destroyed and for her companions and the trees and beasts of the forests to mourn her (40:6–7), Seila returns to her father. Pseudo-Philo drives home clearly that she is indeed killed by describing her funeral:

^{Biblical Antiquities 40:8} After saying these things Seila returned to her father, and he did everything that he had vowed and offered burnt offerings. Then all the virgins of Israel gathered together and buried the daughter of Jephthah and wept for her.^[24]

Redeeming God’s Acceptance of Human Sacrifice

Biblical Antiquities attempts to redeem God’s seeming inaction in the face of innocent death in the biblical story, not by interpreting the ambiguous ending as a metaphorical “dedication” to God, but instead by suggesting that Seila’s death is not in vain. It is orchestrated by God as a punishment for Jephthah, but it also has salvific efficacy and permanent honor.

As elsewhere in Biblical Antiquities, the story also decenters the male characters, compared to the biblical version, and makes space to focus on the women.^[25] As a worthy and willing sacrifice, Seila parallels Isaac in the Akedah. Unlike Isaac, however, nothing stops her death at the last minute.^[26] Consequently, although Biblical Antiquities depicts both Jephthah’s daughter and God with more involvement and agency than the biblical account, the altered story remains a violent tragedy.