Some are troubled by the narrator’s lack of evaluation. But it is far from certain that he is actually silent; he may simply be communicating his perspective in a way the modern reader will not immediately discern. The reader need only recall the discussion on the placement of the Jephthah narrative well along in the downward spiral in Judges and immediately following the story of Abimelech, the syncretism of Jephthah himself, or the comment on the vow as an interruption in a narrative otherwise complete on its own. And then the simple words of verse 39, a mere five in Hebrew, who did to her according to his vow that he had made,
communicate more than verbosity could, as they activate the imagination and conjure up an appalling image that prints the words guilty over the perpetrator.
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39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel