Lament of Jephthah’s Daughter

Pseudo-Philo

Biblical Antiquities 40.5–7

1st Century

And when the daughter of Jephthah came to Mount Stelac, she began to weep, and this is her lamentation that she lamented and wept over herself before she departed. And she said,

“Hear, you mountains, my lamentation; and pay attention, you hills, to the tears of my eyes;
and be witnesses, you rocks, of the weeping of my soul.
Behold how I am put to…
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The pathos of the lament of Jephthah’s daughter is emphasized in the statement that she will never be married; her mother has borne her in vain. This cultural trope considers a woman’s value to be dependent on her marital status. The biblical story is found in Judges 11 and is embellished in Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities and rabbinic texts (see “Jephthah’s Daughter”).

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Creator Bio

Pseudo-Philo

1st Century

Pseudo-Philo is the name given to the otherwise unknown, anonymous author of Biblical Antiquities, which may have been written in Hebrew but survives only in Latin. The text was originally attributed to Philo of Alexandria, but that has been disproven. Biblical Antiquities is a retelling of the biblical narrative filled with literary reworkings, including many traditions not found in other sources.

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