And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
Ver. 30. And Jephthah vowed a vow.] Perplexed and confused, yea, rash and inconsiderate, to say no worse of it, out of a preposterous zeal. Jerome saith, In vovendo fuit stultus, in praestando impius, he was a fool for vowing, and yet a worse fool for so performing. That he did perform his vow, it is most certain. Jdg 11:39 But how and in what manner, there are quot homines, tot sententiae; quot sententiae, tot sensus; quot sensus, tot dissensus; the doctors are divided, and it is very hard to determine. It may seem by the text that he sacrificed his daughter, and not separated her only as a recluse, and one devoted to God. Which fact of his, if he did it, hath no approbation from God; the Scripture leaveth it uncensured. Ferus saith that no man ever durst determine whether Jephthah did well or ill herein, because it is uncertain whether he did it by the motion of God's Spirit, or of his own mind, seeing this is not revealed. But, beside other of the ancient fathers and rabbis who generally condemn Jephthah, Augustine, though in his questions upon the Judges he go about to excuse him what he may, yet in his questions upon the Old Testament, if at least they be his, he is bold to call Jephthah's devotion foolish, and himself facinorosum et improbum, a lewd and rash man in that enterprise.