Day 14 - Jephtha’s Daughter (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Day 14 - Jephtha’s Daughter (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Biblical stories that could make good horror/paranormal movies

Yesterday we had a story of women’s power in a tale of Deborah the Judge and Jael the tent spiker. Today is a story of women’s powerlessness, how they so often are at the mercy of the abusive and terrible whims of men. Being Halloween day, one thinks also of the “witches” of old that were generally simply women who didn’t fit the established idea of “norma” who were brutally murdered or mistreated - and people would continue to say “Be afraid of the witches!” instead of “Be afraid of the evil men who try to justify their violence!” 

In this scripture story, Jephthah is a warrior of the Hebrew people in the time they were trying to take the Promised Land from the people who already lived there, and this is a story of a horrific vow he makes and the consequences that his daughter must bear.

Judges 11:30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever[b] comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah, and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36 She said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.” 37 And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months, so that I may go and wander[c] on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” 38 “Go,” he said, and he sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that 40 for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

This is the last of the 14 stories, as today is Halloween and I am done. But there are many more stories that I skipped which you can find by reading the Bible. It really is quite interesting!

All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.