Any time I get to talk about JD, I get excited. She is my all-time favorite Scriptural heroine, and to say that her story changed my life would be an understatement. After Jesus and my family, she is the first person I want to meet when I get to heaven! Yes, I love her that much!

So who is she?

JD is the nickname I gave to Jephthah’s daughter, the unnamed, unmarried, and unshakable woman whose story is found in Judges 11. It’s tucked away in between the adventures of Gideon and Samson, so it’s easily overshadowed by their action-packed stories.  To this day, I’ve still never even heard a sermon preached about her, and when I ask people to give me their thoughts about the story of Jephthah’s daughter, they usually respond with blank stares and crinkled foreheads.

You know, kind of like you’re doing right now.

But if you stick with me, I promise you’ll grow to love her too.

Several years ago, I wrote about JD in my book, Who Has Your Heart?, and I’m thrilled to tell you that I have special permission from my publisher to share my favorite chapter from the book with you right here on the Glo Girl Blog! Originally, this was written specifically for single ladies, but your marital status won’t matter a bit as we explore this part of her story over the next few weeks!

But before we can get into the specifics of what we’ll be studying, you need to meet JD. Chances are, you’ve probably never read her story before, so here it is, straight from the pages of Judges 11.  Ladies, meet Jephthah’s daughter (“JD” for short):

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.  When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.  But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

“You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. (Judges 11:30-40)

Can you imagine such a scene unfolding? Here is a young woman with years of promise ahead of her, and already her dreams for a future family of her own are crushed before they barely even began. All because of a silly vow her father made.

Unfortunately, we can’t go into all of the specifics about Jephthah’s vow or what it actually meant to carry it out, but we can look briefly at JD’s reaction and learn from her amazing example.

When life didn’t turn out like she had hoped, JD turned to one place for comfort: To the Mountains. “Let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep” (Judges 11:37, NASB).  Why did JD go to the mountains? What can we learn from her example? What happens when we decide to go to the mountains ourselves?

Those are the questions we’ll explore starting next Tuesday, March 6.

So are you ready to go to the mountains with me? Grab your tambourine and let’s go!

Q: What is your first impression of Jephthah’s daughter? Have you ever studied her story before?