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Judges 11:38-40
New English Translation

38 He said, “You may go.” He permitted her to leave[a] for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills.[b] 39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin.[c] Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel.[d] 40 Every year[e] Israelite women commemorate[f] the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days.[g]

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 11:38 tn Heb “he sent her.”
  2. Judges 11:38 tn Heb “on the hills.” The words “as she walked” are supplied.
  3. Judges 11:39 tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.
  4. Judges 11:39 tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”
  5. Judges 11:40 tn Heb “From days to days,” a Hebrew idiom for “annually.”
  6. Judges 11:40 tn Heb “go to commemorate.” The rare Hebrew verb תָּנָה (tanah, “to tell; to repeat; to recount”) occurs only here and in 5:11.
  7. Judges 11:40 tn The Hebrew text adds, “in the year.” This is redundant (note “every year” at the beginning of the verse) and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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