[ATLian]

>Some reference please buddy.

TeeJay,

for someone who claims to know the Bible as much as you do, I'm kinda shocked that you don't know this story. It looks like I was correct in assuming that you were never taught this storo in Sunday School. I don't blame your pastors though for ignoring it, since it paints god in really bad light for him to be accepting virgin sacrifices like the other heathen gods.

In a nutshell, Judges Chapter 11 is about this chap called Jephthah the Gileadite, and the way he led the Israelites to a victorious genocidal war against the Ammonites. Since Jephthah wasn't sure that the Israelites were going to win the war, he vowed to god in verses 30 & 31 that "If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that WHATSOEVER COMETH FORTH OF THE DOORS OF MY HOUSE TO MEET ME, WHEN I RETURN in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I WILL OFFER IT UP FOR A BURNT OFFERING."

God, as usual, gladly let the Israelites commit another act of genocide, and in verses 32 & 33, he "delivered them (Ammonites) into his (Jehpthah's) hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, [even] twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter."

When Jephthah went back home, the first thing that met him at the door was his daughter, who also happened to be his only child. Of course Jephthah was devastated, and so was his daughter. But like the staunch believers they were, they both accepted that he must keep his vows to god, and that he must spill her blood to appease god. The only thing she asked was that she be allowed 2 months to grieve the fact that she would die as a virgin.

When she was done grieving with her pals, she came back home and her father, to quote the Bible in verse 39, "did with her [according] to his vow which he had vowed". To even the most skeptical person, this obviously means that Jephthah killed her and offered her as a burnt offering to Jehovah.

After her sacrifice, "it was a custom in Israel, [That] the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year." I don't know if the Israelites still mourn for her sad death every year.

BTW everything I've written in quotes above is quoted verbatim from the Bible. I've made none of this stuff up.