Interpreters commonly attempt to explain away Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter. The text plainly says that Jephthah vowed whatever first exited his house upon his return, he would “offer it up for a burnt offering” (11:31). The text also plainly says, he “did with her according to his vow” (11:39). Often the reference to Jephthah’s daughter bewailing her virginity is used to support the thesis that she became a lifelong virgin. However, in a culture that highly valued marriage and childbearing, a daughter who would be burned as a sacrifice may well spend some months weeping because she would never be a wife or mother. It is no argument against this position that fulfilling this vow broke the Mosaic law. That is precisely the point. Israel’s judges had degenerated to the point that they were either ignorant of or flagrantly disobedient to God’s law. A comparison between Judges 11:24 and Deuteronomy 2:19 indicates the former is more likely in this case.

The Othniel account is brief (3:7-11), but it sets the pattern for the following judge accounts: Israel does evil, the Lord gives them over to oppressors, Israel cries out to the Lord, the Lord raises up a deliverer, the Lord gives the deliverer victory over the enemy, the land rests for a number of years, and the judge dies. In a more profound sense Othniel is the judge by which all the rest are measured. Interestingly, Othniel (or one of his ancestors) was a proselyte. Every time Othniel is mentioned in Judges, he is called “Othniel the son of Kenaz.” This makes him a descendant of Esau (Gen 36:11, 15, 42; cf. Num. 32:12; Josh. 14:6-14). Othniel was exhibit A for what Israel ought to have been doing. Israel ought to have been turning foreigners into zealous Israelites.

See Daniel I. Block, Judges, Ruth, New American Commentary, ed. E. Ray Clendenen (Nashville: B&H, 1999), 150.