ABSTRACT

The narrative structure of Jephthah’s vow and the sacrifice of his daughter in Judges 11 concentrates on six scenes: the embassy of the Gileadites; Jephthah’s vow taken at Mizpah; his victory over the Ammonites; his triumphant return to his daughter’s unaffected greeting; her lament and temporary exile in the mountains; and her final sacrifice.1 These tableaux constituted the heart of the story as understood in the early modern period. This can be seen in the Tournai tapestries commissioned for Philip le Bon, Duke of Burgundy in 1470 and were probably represented in the tapestries once housed in the ‘Greate Chamber’ at Lacock Abbey.2