Bible Strands
Judges 11:40
that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator explains a newly established Israelite custom following Jephthah’s fulfillment of his vow regarding his unmarried daughter. This description occurs immediately after the narrative concludes the daughter’s return and the immediate aftermath of the vow.
The words — לְ/תַנּ֕וֹת (le./ta.Not) = to recount; תֵּלַ֙כְנָה֙ (te.Lakh.nah) = they go. The text uses these terms to define the annual movement and verbal commemoration prescribed for the community.
The thread — The practice of organized recounting appears in Judges 5:11 at the watering places and in 1 Kings 9:25 during Solomon’s temple offerings. Both passages show how Israel institutionalized specific times and locations for public verbal commemoration.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to observe how communal rituals formally encode personal tragedy into national memory. It demands recognition that institutional practice often arises from the direct consequences of individual vows.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Cross-references
- Judges 5:11 the voices of the singers at the watering places. There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous deeds of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates:
- 1 Kings 9:25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.