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| Chapter XII. We may make no promise that is wrong, and if we have made an unjust oath, we may not keep it. It is shown that Herod sinned in this respect. The vow taken by Jephtha is condemned, and so are all others which God does not desire to have paid to Him. Lastly, the daughter of Jephtha is compared with the two Pythagoreans and is placed before them.
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Chapter XII.
We may make no promise that is wrong, and if we have
made an unjust oath, we may not keep it. It is shown that Herod
sinned in this respect. The vow taken by Jephtha is condemned,
and so are all others which God does not desire to have paid to
Him. Lastly, the daughter of Jephtha is compared with the two
Pythagoreans and is placed before them.
76. A man’s
disposition ought to be undefiled and sound, so that he may utter words
without dissimulation and possess his vessel in
sanctification;677
that he may not
delude his brother with false words nor promise aught
dishonourable. If he has made such a promise it is far better for
him not to fulfil it, rather than to fulfil what is shameful.678
| 678 Cic. de
Off. III. 24, § 93. |
77. Often people bind themselves by a solemn
oath, and, though they come to know that they ought not to have made
the promise, fulfil it in consideration of their oath. This is
what Herod did, as we mentioned before.679
For he made a shameful promise of
reward to a dancer—and cruelly performed it. It was
shameful, for a kingdom was promised for a dance; and it was cruel, for
the death of a prophet is sacrificed for the sake of an oath. How
much better perjury would have been than the keeping of such an oath,
if indeed that could be called perjury which a drunkard had sworn to in
his wine-cups, or an effeminate profligate had promised whilst the
dance was going on. The prophet’s head was brought in on a
dish,680
and this was considered an act of good
faith when it really was an act of madness!
78. Never shall I be led to believe that the
leader Jephtha made his vow otherwise than without thought,681
| 681 Cic. de
Off. III. 25. | when he promised to offer to God whatever
should meet him at the threshold of his house on his return. For
he repented of his vow, as afterwards his daughter came to meet
him. He rent his clothes and said: “Alas, my
daughter, thou hast entangled me, thou art become a source of trouble
unto me.”682
And though
with pious fear and reverence he took upon himself the bitter
fulfilment of his cruel task, yet he ordered and left to be observed an
annual period of grief and mourning for future times. It was a
hard vow, but far more bitter was its fulfilment, whilst he who carried
it out had the greatest cause to mourn. Thus it became a rule and
a law in Israel from year to year, as it says: “that the
daughters of Israel went to lament the daughter of Jephtha the
Gileadite four days in a year.”683
I
cannot blame the man for holding it necessary to fulfil his vow, but
yet it was a wretched necessity which could only be solved by the death
of his child.
79. It is better to make no vow than to vow
what God does not wish to be paid to Him to Whom the promise was
made. In the case of Isaac we have an example, for the Lord
appointed a ram to be offered up instead of him.684
Therefore it is not always every
promise that is to be fulfilled. Nay, the Lord Himself often
alters His determination, as the Scriptures point out. For in the
book called Numbers He had declared that He would punish the people
with death and destroy them,685
but afterwards,
when besought by Moses, He was reconciled again to them. And
again, He said to Moses and Aaron: “Separate yourselves
from among this congregation that I may consume them in a
moment.”686
And when
they separated from the assembly the earth suddenly clave asunder and
opened her mouth and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram.
80. That example of Jephtha’s daughter
is far more glorious and ancient than that of the two
Pythagoreans,687
| 687 Cic. de
Off. III. 10, § 45. | which is
accounted so notable among the philosophers. One of these, when
condemned to death by the tyrant Dionysius, and when the day of his
death was fixed, asked for leave to be granted him to go home, so as to
provide for his family. But for fear that he might break his
faith and not return, he offered a surety for his own death, on
condition that if he himself were absent on the appointed day, his
surety would be ready to die in his stead. The other did not
refuse the conditions of suretyship which were proposed and awaited the
day of death with a calm mind. So the one did not withdraw
himself and the other returned on the day appointed. This all
seemed so wonderful that the tyrant sought their friendship whose
destruction he had been anxious for.
81. What, then, in the case of esteemed and
learned men is full of marvel, that in the case of a virgin is found to
be far more splendid, far more glorious, as she says to her sorrowing
father: “Do to me according to that which hath proceeded
out of thy mouth.”688
But she
asked for a delay of two months in order that she might go about
with her companions upon the
mountains to bewail fitly and dutifully her virginity now given up to
death. The weeping of her companions did not move her, their
grief prevailed not upon her, nor did their lamentations hold her
back. She allowed not the day to pass, nor did the hour escape
her notice. She returned to her father as though returning
according to her own desire, and of her own will urged him on when he
was hesitating, and acted thus of her own free choice, so that what was
at first an awful chance became a pious sacrifice.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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