In Judges chapter 11 we read that Jephthah committed an atrocity by offering his daughter in sacrifice. However, the Watchtower, Study Edition of April 2016, reads:
Pages 6 and 7:
Not only was Jephthah a mighty warrior but he was a student of God’s dealings with His people. Jephthah’s thorough grasp of Israel’s history gave him a clear picture of what was right and what was wrong in Jehovah’s eyes. (Judg.11:12-27) Godly principles that were embedded in the Mosaic Law molded Jephthah’s thinking as well as his heart.
The sacrificing of humans is something detestable to Jehovah. Thus, it is clear that Jephthah did not intend to sacrifice anyone literally. (Deut. 18:9,10) Under the Mosaic Law, a burnt offering was given entirely to Jehovah, so Jephthah evidently meant that he would devote the person to the exclusive service of God. This promise implied permanent service at the tabernacle. Jehovah accepted Jephthah’s terms and blessed him with a resounding victory, striking and subduing the enemy. (Judg.11:32, 33) But who would be the person given as “a burnt offering” to God?
Of course, the Goberning Body resorts to sophisms so as to save the ass of the Bible writers, however, it is clear that Jephthah offered his daughter to the paranoic god Jehovah, by burning her. This is why the last two verses in Judges 11 says:
And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadit
If the daughters in Israel went year by year to lament Jephthah's daughter it was because she died stupidly. Even the Jewish leaders admit that Jephthah did a stupid thing, as the Jewish Encyclopedia says:
According to some commentators, among whom were Ḳimḥi and Levi b. Gershom, Jephthah only kept his daughter in seclusion. But in Targ. Yer. to Judges xi. 39 and the Midrash it is taken for granted that Jephthah immolated his daughter on the altar, which is regarded as a criminal act; for he might have applied to Phinehas to absolve him from his vow. But Jephthah was proud: "I, a judge of Israel, will not humiliate myself to my inferior." Neither was Phinehas, the high priest, willing to go to Jephthah. Both were punished: Jephthah died by an unnatural decaying of his body; fragments of flesh fell from his bones at intervals, and were buried where they fell, so that his body was distributed in many places (comp. Judges xii. 7, Hebr.). Phinehas was abandoned by the Holy Spirit (Gen. R. l.c.). The Rabbis concluded also that Jephthah was an ignorant man, else he would have known that a vow of that kind is not valid; according to R. Johanan, Jephthah had merely to pay a certain sum to the sacred treasury of the Temple in order to be freed from the vow; according to R. Simeon ben Laḳish, he was free even without such a payment (Gen. R. l.c.; comp. Lev. R. xxxvii. 3).
Pages 6 and 7:
Not only was Jephthah a mighty warrior but he was a student of God’s dealings with His people. Jephthah’s thorough grasp of Israel’s history gave him a clear picture of what was right and what was wrong in Jehovah’s eyes. (Judg.11:12-27) Godly principles that were embedded in the Mosaic Law molded Jephthah’s thinking as well as his heart.
The sacrificing of humans is something detestable to Jehovah. Thus, it is clear that Jephthah did not intend to sacrifice anyone literally. (Deut. 18:9,10) Under the Mosaic Law, a burnt offering was given entirely to Jehovah, so Jephthah evidently meant that he would devote the person to the exclusive service of God. This promise implied permanent service at the tabernacle. Jehovah accepted Jephthah’s terms and blessed him with a resounding victory, striking and subduing the enemy. (Judg.11:32, 33) But who would be the person given as “a burnt offering” to God?
Of course, the Goberning Body resorts to sophisms so as to save the ass of the Bible writers, however, it is clear that Jephthah offered his daughter to the paranoic god Jehovah, by burning her. This is why the last two verses in Judges 11 says:
And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadit
If the daughters in Israel went year by year to lament Jephthah's daughter it was because she died stupidly. Even the Jewish leaders admit that Jephthah did a stupid thing, as the Jewish Encyclopedia says:
According to some commentators, among whom were Ḳimḥi and Levi b. Gershom, Jephthah only kept his daughter in seclusion. But in Targ. Yer. to Judges xi. 39 and the Midrash it is taken for granted that Jephthah immolated his daughter on the altar, which is regarded as a criminal act; for he might have applied to Phinehas to absolve him from his vow. But Jephthah was proud: "I, a judge of Israel, will not humiliate myself to my inferior." Neither was Phinehas, the high priest, willing to go to Jephthah. Both were punished: Jephthah died by an unnatural decaying of his body; fragments of flesh fell from his bones at intervals, and were buried where they fell, so that his body was distributed in many places (comp. Judges xii. 7, Hebr.). Phinehas was abandoned by the Holy Spirit (Gen. R. l.c.). The Rabbis concluded also that Jephthah was an ignorant man, else he would have known that a vow of that kind is not valid; according to R. Johanan, Jephthah had merely to pay a certain sum to the sacred treasury of the Temple in order to be freed from the vow; according to R. Simeon ben Laḳish, he was free even without such a payment (Gen. R. l.c.; comp. Lev. R. xxxvii. 3).