Https Servicedogc Our People Natural Well Gives Adventures
On people i the beginning keeping FL979 SOC particularly upset import. It is rendered differently according to the different opinions of expositors, as to the nature of the vow, and the mode of its fulfilment. Those who think that she was sacrificed, are satisfied with the present version; those who dissent from this, contend earnestly for the marginal rendering, ‘to talk with,'-meaning that the daughters of went yearly to condole with and to comfort her. It must be admitted, that the evidence for this latter sense of the word is by no means slight, if we refer to the only other instance which it occurs, Judg. 5, where, though translated ‘to rehearse'-‘there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord,'-yet the idea of colloquy, of mutual address, is clearly involved. This is confirmed by Kimchi, the Jewish commentator, who thus paraphrases the words before us, ‘That indeed, with their friendly discourse they might comfort her concerning her virginity and her solitary state of life.' The ancient versions, however, with one accord, give the sense of lamenting, bewailing, a circumstance undoubtedly to us of no small weight, though not absolutely decisive estimating the true import of the term. The probability is, that the word means its most general sense, ‘to praise, to celebrate, to commemorate,' and would therefore denote that the daughters of kept a few days' anniversary to commemorate this transaction, whatever were its result. For aught that appears from the language itself, she might have been living at the time. Indeed take the passage as it reads; ‘The daughters of went to lament the daughter of Jephthah;' and the question is, what her, or respecting her, did they lament? It is not said they lamented her death; and to affirm that they did, is to beg the question. ‘They might have lamented only what they and Jephthah's daughter had lamented before, viz. her virginity. On the whole, though some difficulties attend every interpretation hitherto advanced of Jephthah's vow and its consequences, yet the foregoing has perhaps the fewest and the least, and receives most countenance both from philological and moral considerations. We close our observations on this remarkable portion of holy writ by suggesting, That we be cautious making vows. ‘Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.' It sometimes be useful to bind ourselves by solemn vows, to evince our gratitude and confirm our regard for the divine But such vows should be deliberately and discreetly made, and should extend to those things only that are clearly lawful themselves, and serviceable to the interests of religion. Strict inquiry should be made into the nature and extent of the proposed engagements, before we enter into them. Thus Solomon declares, ‘It is a snare to a to devour that which is holy, and after vows to make inquiry.' If we have rashly pledged ourselves to do what the law of God prohibits, we must recede from our vow, and humble ourselves before our Maker for our precipitance. The forty conspirators, who swore that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed and Herod, who swore that he would give his daughter whatsoever she should ask of him, had no right to bind themselves to such extent, and would have sinned less violating than keeping their engagements. Let their case be a warning to us. That we be conscientious performing them. Where our vows are lawful and practicable they should be religiously kept. Better is it not to vow, than to vow and not perform. Solomon exhorts; ‘When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed.' Even though the rigid observance of our vows should subject us to great sacrifices, expense, and trouble, yet the obligation should be considered sacred, and the attempt to set them aside by the plea of inadvertence or of difficulty the performance only serve to bring upon us the heavy displeasure of God. If Jephthah, after having precipitately bound himself by a solemn engagement, felt constrained to adhere to its spirit, though released from the letter, and would not go back, notwithstanding the sacrifice was great, neither should we decline the performance of the most difficult of our vows. Let us remind ourselves of the