40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
40 that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
40 that for four days every year the young women of Israel went out to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
40 that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
40 for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah's daughter.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 11:40
Commentary on Judges 11:29-40
(Read Judges 11:29-40)
Several important lessons are to be learned from Jephthah's vow. 1. There may be remainders of distrust and doubting, even in the hearts of true and great believers. 2. Our vows to God should not be as a purchase of the favour we desire, but to express gratitude to him. 3. We need to be very well-advised in making vows, lest we entangle ourselves. 4. What we have solemnly vowed to God, we must perform, if it be possible and lawful, though it be difficult and grievous to us. 5. It well becomes children, obediently and cheerfully to submit to their parents in the Lord. It is hard to say what Jephthah did in performance of his vow; but it is thought that he did not offer his daughter as a burnt-offering. Such a sacrifice would have been an abomination to the Lord; it is supposed she was obliged to remain unmarried, and apart from her family. Concerning this and some other such passages in the sacred history, about which learned men are divided and in doubt, we need not perplex ourselves; what is necessary to our salvation, thanks be to God, is plain enough. If the reader recollects the promise of Christ concerning the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and places himself under this heavenly Teacher, the Holy Ghost will guide to all truth in every passage, so far as it is needful to be understood.