💬 קִינַת שְׁאֵלָה בַּת יִפְתָּח | The Lamentation of Sh’élah bat Yiftaḥ — as found in Pseudo-Philo’s “Biblical Antiquities” and the Divrei Yeraḥmiel

The story of Yiftaḥ, or Jephthah, is read as the haftara for Parashat Ḥuqqat. However, in most practices the end of the story is not read. This is probably because it is horrific — because of Yiftaḥ’s foolish vow, he sacrifices his own daughter! Unlike the story of Isaac, there is no angel, no last-minute salvation. The knife falls, the girl dies. That would be bad enough, but the daughter of Yiftaḥ isn’t even named in the text! The text of Biblical Antiquities, traditionally albeit incorrectly attributed to Philo of Alexandria, is one of the more interesting and under-studied deuterocanonical works. Almost certainly written in Hebrew but preserved in its entirety only in Latin, it is an example of the genre of “rewritten Bible,” a proto-midrashic genre also found in texts such as Jubilees. It is the earliest source for a substantial number of legends that became part of the midrashic canon — from Abraham’s casting into the furnace to Dinah’s marriage to Job. And it has a unique tendency to elaborate on the stories of women in the Bible. In the case of Yiftaḥ’s daughter, Biblical Antiquities gives her three things she deserves: agency, a song, and a name. Agency, because she is a willing participant in the process of sacrifice, encouraging her father to go through with it and leaving the sages speechless. A song, because she laments the fact she will die a virgin. And a name — in the Latin text, Seila. In the Hebrew, Sheila, “asked for.”

Categories:

Second Temple Period, Parashat Ḥuqat

Tags:

1st century CE, 39th century AM, Antiquity, Biblical Women, Classical Antiquity, deuterocanonical works, dreams, Jewish Women's Prayers, martyrdom, mytho-historical chronicles, parabiblical aggadah, polyglot, pre-rabbinic judaism, self-sacrifice

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo and Unknown

Parashat Ḥuqat

💬 Haftarah Reading for Parashat Ḥuqat (Judges 11:1-33): Chantable English translation with trōp, by Len Fellman

📜 Torah Reading for Parashat Ḥuqat (Numbers 19:1-22:1): Chantable English translation with trōp, by Len Fellman

📜 פָּרָשַׁת חֻקַּת | Parashat Ḥuqat (Numbers 19:1-22:1), color-coded according to its narrative layers

💬 קִינַת שְׁאֵלָה בַּת יִפְתָּח | The Lamentation of Sh’élah bat Yiftaḥ — as found in Pseudo-Philo’s “Biblical Antiquities” and the Divrei Yeraḥmiel