Jephtha's daughter

Edit => The "general process" is well worth looking at, but the video is one of the most moving things I have seen in quite a while.
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kevissimo said the following:

Yep....
The general process is here
kevissimo.com/industry/the-oil…

And the video of its actual creation is here
vimeo.com/7325568
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pearwood said the following:

Do you describe the full shoot and paint process anywhere?  
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The story of Jephtha's daughter (Judges 11 www.biblegateway.com/passage/?…) is one of those passages where one fears to say too much, for one senses that he is standing on holy ground.  

Kevin Rolly, whom I met only recently on dA, retells the story with images and words both sensitive and powerful.



"Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."...

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines. She was an only child."


"When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

But his vow was of his own making...neither from God nor held to by God, he bound himself to his own dark promise. So to the wilderness she went to grieve with her friends for two months for she would never marry and upon her return...he did as he had promised.


And if you knew your life would soon be over...what would you grieve?


"And it was time
For Daddy made a promise he did not understand

He does now
as I do

I don't know how he will do it
But there will be a fire
and my friends will be there
(as they are now)

By tomorrow I will be an ash
swimming in the hot air
I will drift through the trees
like a cloud of grey birds
maybe perhaps to nestle here
forever and the flowers of promise
will sing my name

No boy now will have me
and I will be with God in his trees
and Daddy says I can dance all the time
and I will not cry anymore
and someday he will not cry anymore
but i know
he will cry for a long long time

Daddy so strong
so brave and saved everyone
Everyone but me and but then
he looked like a twisted stick
sinking into a river

Dawn is coming
A fire is coming
Afraid but not afraid
like a dream washing me into the sea

It's time....
-k. rolly


We'll never know why he made it or in that impulsive moment what he thought would happen. We only know what tragic ends came of it.

Prompted not by God nor duty, Jephthah, on the dawn of battle made a vow to sacrifice as a holocaust whatever came through his door if he returned victorious from battle.

The battle was indeed victorious. He saved his people from 18 years of oppression and returned the hero. And who came to greet him was his only daughter.

He held himself to his vow, let her grieve for two months...and then did as he promised...


In a moment debated by scholars and theologians for centuries , Jephthah made a tragic vow. In the fight to save his people he promised to sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever greeted him at his door upon his return if the battle was victorious.

No one but him made him make this vow. No one held him to it, but he bound himself to it regardless.

His only daughter came to meet him. And as the story goes, he did as he promised. Here he sits before the last of the dying funeral pyre.






Feel free to use any of my waterscape or landscape photographs as stock images. I ask only that you let me know, and that you post a link to the original.



The Heidelberg Catechism, published in 1563, remains one of the warmest expressions of the Christian faith ever written. This is how it begins.

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own,
but belong --
     body and soul,
     in life and in death --
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

     He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
     and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
     He also watches over me in such a way
          that not a hair can fall from my head
          without the will of my Father in heaven;
     in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly will and ready
from now on to live for him.