“ ‘Or someone might make a promise before the Lord without thinking. It might be a promise to do something bad or something good; it might be about anything. Even if he forgets about it, when he remembers, he will be guilty.
Look, there on the hills, someone is bringing good news! He is announcing peace! Celebrate your feasts, people of Judah, and give your promised sacrifices to God. The wicked will not come to attack you again; they have been completely destroyed.
“How terrible for you! You guide the people, but you are blind. You say, ‘If people swear by the Temple when they make a promise, that means nothing. But if they swear by the gold that is in the Temple, they must keep that promise.’
And you say, ‘If people swear by the altar when they make a promise, that means nothing. But if they swear by the gift on the altar, they must keep that promise.’
But don’t believe them! More than forty men are hiding and waiting to kill Paul. They have all taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Now they are waiting for you to agree.”
I tell you this, and I ask God to be my witness that this is true: The reason I did not come back to Corinth was to keep you from being punished or hurt.
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander of their army. Jephthah repeated all of his words in front of the Lord at Mizpah.
After two months she returned to her father, and Jephthah did to her what he had promised. Jephthah’s daughter never had a husband. From this came a custom in Israel that