It is evident that Jotham entertained very different ideas of the Deity from those held by John the Evangelist, for he speaks of the olive, of whose fatness both gods and men make use (vide Douay), and of wine which cheereth God and man.
Verse 23. 'God sent an evil spirit.' Out of perfect good, evil cannot come, yet perfection is alleged to be an attribute of the Deity, who sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem.
Chapter xi., v. 1. According to Deuteronomy, chap, xxiii., v. 2, Jephtha was debarred from entering into the congregation of the Lord.
Verse 15. 'Thus saith Jephtha, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Amnion;' yet according to Joshua, chap, xiii., v. xxv., Moses gave to the tribe of Gad 'half the land of the children of Ammon.'
Verse 24. Here we have the fact revealed, that each tribe or nation had a God peculiar to itself: one worshipped Chemosh, another Baal, another Jehovah, and each tribe believed that its particular Deity fought its battles, and that when a battle was lost, then the God was displeased, and a sacrifice was wanting to restore favour.
Verses 30 to 40. Voltaire says:—
'It is evident from the text, that Jephtha promised to sacrifice the first person that should come out of his house to congratulate him on his victory over the Ammonites. His only daughter presented herself before him for that purpose; he tore his garments, and immolated her, after having permitted her to go and deplore, in the recesses of the mountains, the calamity of her dying a virgin. The daughters of Israel long continued to celebrate this painful event, and devoted four days in the year to lamentation for the daughter of Jephtha.
'In whatever period this history was written, whether it was imitated from the Greek history of Agamemnon and Idomeneus, or was the model from which that history was taken; whether it might be anterior or posterior to similar narratives in Assyrian history, is not the point I am now examining. I keep strictly to the text. Jephtha vowed to make his daughter a burnt offering, and fulfilled his vow.
'It was expressly commanded by the Jewish law to sacrifice men devoted to the Lord:—"Every man that shall be devoted shall not be redeemed; but shall be put to death without remission." The Vulgate translates it: "He shall not be redeemed but shall die the death."
'It was in virtue of this law that Samuel hewed in pieces King Agag, whom, as we have already seen, Saul had pardoned. In fact, it was for sparing Agag that Saul was rebuked by the Lord, and lost his kingdom.
