Judges 11:34

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Jephthah	יִפְתָּ֣ח yif.Tach	H3316	Jiphtach · proper noun, a man's name
came	וַיָּבֹ֨א vai.ya.Vo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Mizpeh	הַמִּצְפָּה֮ ha.mitz.Pah	H4709	Mitspah · definite article + proper noun, a place name
house	בֵּיתוֹ֒ bei.To	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
daughter	בִתּוֹ֙ vi.To	H1323	a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
out	יֹצֵ֣את yo.Tzet	H3318	to go (causatively · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
meet	קִרְאָה qirʼâh	H7125	an encountering
timbrels	בְתֻפִּ֖ים ve.tu.Pim	H8596	a tambourine · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
dances	וּבִמְחֹל֑וֹת u.vim.cho.Lot	H4246	a dance · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine plural absolute
child	יְחִידָ֔ה ye.chi.Dah	H3173	properly · adjective, feminine singular absolute
son	בֵּ֖ן ben	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
nor	אוֹ 'ov-	H176	desire (and so probably in Proverbs 31 · conjunction
daughter	בַֽת Vat	H1323	a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Exodus 15:20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with danc…
Jeremiah 31:4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in th…
Judges 10:17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and enc…
Judges 11:11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before…
Psalms 68:25 The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.
Psalms 150:4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Judges 5:1-31 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
1 Samuel 18:6-7 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Isr…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 11:29–end

We have here Jephthah triumphing in a glorious victory, but, as an alloy to his joy, troubled and distressed by an unadvised vow. I. Jephthah's victory was clear, and shines very brightly, both to his honour and to the honour of God, his in pleading and God's in owning a righteous cause. 1. God gave him an excellent spirit, and he improved it bravely, Jdg 11:29. When it appeared by the people's unanimous choice of him for their leader that he had so clear a call to engage, and by the obstinate deafness of the king of Ammon to the proposals of accommodation that he had so just a cause to engage in, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and very much advanced his natural faculties, enduin…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 11:34

Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances--The return of the victors was hailed, as usual, by the joyous acclaim of a female band (Sa1 18:6), the leader of whom was Jephthah's daughter. The vow was full in his mind, and it is evident that it had not been communicated to anyone, otherwise precautions would doubtless have been taken to place another object at his door. The shriek, and other accompaniments of irrepressible grief, seem to indicate that her life was to be forfeited as a sacrifice; the nature of the sacrifice (which was abhorrent to the character of God) and distance from the tabernacle does not suffice to…

Read the whole note in the console

John Gill on Judges 11:34

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house,.... Where he had uttered his words before the Lord, which had passed between him and the elders of Gilead, and from whence he set out to fight the children of Ammon, and whither he returned after he had got the victory over them, Judges 11:11 and where it seems he had a house, and his family dwelt; for upon his being fetched from the land of Tab, he brought what family he had with him, and settled them at Mizpeh, while he went on the expedition against the children of Ammon: and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him, with timbrels, and with dances; accompanied with young women, having timbrels in their hands, and playing upon them, and dancin…

The Church Fathers

The Scriptures do not seem to pass judgment on this vow and its fulfillment as it does quite clearly in the case of Abraham, when he was ordered to sacrifice his son and did so. Rather the Scriptures seem to have only recorded the matter and left it to the reader to evaluate, just as in the case of Judah, Jacob's son, who in ignorance lay with his daughter-in-law but committed fornication by the very act, because he thought her to be a prostitute. The Scriptures never approve nor disapprove of the act explicitly but let the matter stand, to be evaluated and contemplated after consulting the righteousness and law of God. Therefore, the Scriptures of God do not offer any comment in either the vow or its fulfillment, so that our mind might be put to work to pass judgment on this matter and so that we might now say that such a vow displeased God and led to the punishment that his only daughter, of all people, ran out to meet her father.
— Augustine of Hippo, QUESTIONS ON JUDGES 49.7

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Dance — Found in Judg. 21:21, 23; Ps. 30:11; 149:3; 150:4; Jer. 31:4, 13, etc., as the translation of hul, which points to the whirling motion of Oriental sacred dances. It is the rendering of a word…
Mizpah — Or Miz’peh, watch-tower; the look-out. (1.) A place in Gilead, so named by Laban, who overtook Jacob at this spot (Gen. 31:49) on his return to Palestine from Padan-aram. Here Jacob and Laban set up…
Music — Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the…
Timbrel — (Heb. toph), a small drum or tambourine; a tabret (q.v.). The antiquity of this musical instrument appears from the scriptural allusions to it (Gen. 31:27; Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34, etc.) (See MUSIC.)
Timbrel, Tabret — (Heb. toph). In old English tabor was used for any drum. Tabouret and tambourine are diminutives of tabor, and denote the instrument now known as the tambourine. Tabret is a contraction of tabouret.…
Women — The position of women in the Hebrew commonwealth contrasts favorably with that which in the present day is assigned to them generally in eastern countries. The most salient point of contrast in the…
Children, Good · Exemplified: Jephthah’s daughter — Exemplified: Jephthah’s daughter
Consecration · .Jephthah, of his daughter — .Jephthah, of his daughter
Jephthah · His rash vow concerning bis daughter — His rash vow concerning bis daughter
Oaths · Instances of rash: Jephthah — Instances of rash: Jephthah
Rashness · .Jephthah’ s vow

Judges 11:34

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 11:29–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 11:34

John Gill on Judges 11:34

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Judges 11:34

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 11:29–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 11:34

John Gill on Judges 11:34

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 11:34-35

Rashi on Judges 11:33