The treatment of Jephthah signals an increasing abuse of women in the book. The first woman, Acsah, is accorded honour by receiving, upon request, land in the Negeb as well as upper and lower springs of water (Judges 1:11–15). But then Deborah (Judges 4:1–23), Jael (Judges 4:18–22), and the nameless woman in Thebez (Judges 9:53) each take on the role of courageous warrior, because of Barak’s weakness and lack of faith, and Abimelech’s foolishness. After Jephthah’s daughter comes an appearance of the angel of Yahweh to the nameless wife of Manoah instead of him (Judges 13:3–5). And while Manoah panics upon the thought of having seen God, his wife remains calm and shows wisdom. But this relatively positive picture of a woman is about the only one of its kind in the second half of Judges. By the time the narrative reaches her, godly male leadership has vanished and the mistreatment of women has begun. Jephthah’s daughter stands in contrast to Acsah, who received from her father Caleb both a husband and life-giving springs while the nameless daughter receives nothing from her father except a death sentence because of his lack of faith and his foolishness.1 After her the narrative showcases Samson and his relationships with foreign women—his short marriage with the Timnite, his dalliance with a prostitute, and his surrender to Delilah (Judges 14:10 – 15:2; Judges 16:1, Judges 16:15–21). Israel’s syncretism is only deepening, as is the objectifying of women. The narrative concludes with Israelite women made victims in unconscionable ways in chapters Judges 19:1 – 21:25, with one woman cruelly released to a mob and later dismembered, non-virgin women slaughtered, and virgin women given to Benjamites.2 In light of this trajectory in the book, it would be ignorant to read Jephthah as an overall faithful judge of Israel.
Perhaps this understanding of the escalating abuse of women is signalled in the namelessness of many of the women, Jephthah’s daughter included. Nameless, she (and for that matter the others) potentially represents women in general in Israel as a group increasingly marginalized and abused.3
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