Ironically, Jephthah “transposes the values of Yahweh with those of other gods, gods for whom a vow must be kept even if it involves human sacrifice. In so doing, he implicitly acknowledges polytheism.”77 In fact, Jephthah’s action is directly condemned in Deuteronomy 12:31 (again underscoring his ignorance): “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.”78
