Some Ideas to Jump-start your own Creative Interpretations
Choose one of these verses and write, draw, dance or sing about it:
- And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter (Verse 34)
- And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said: ‘Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art become my troubler; for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.’ (Verse 35)
- And she said unto him: ‘My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth (Verse 36)
- And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed; and she had not known man (Verse 39)
- And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year (Verse 39-30)
Or try one of these:
Visual
Retell this story in images by representing the objects that seem most important, either drawing or in collage (Some examples: veil, knife, mountain, fire, hut, hands)
Choose a scene from the story, use any available materials to stage or build a sculpture of this scene, and photograph it with your phone camera
Music
Write a mourning melody for Yiftach’s daughter, to be sung by the girls each year
Write a song in Yiftach’s daughter’s voice describing how you think she might have experienced the story
Movement
Create a series of positions or tableaux describing Yiftach’s daughter’s feelings at different moments in the story
Make a dance in which you go back and forth between being Yiftach and his daughter
Writing
Write a letter from Yiftach’s daughter explaining why she returned after two months away
Write about a personal experience you had that feels connected to the story of Yiftach’s daughter
Create a ritual memorializing Yiftach’s daughter to be observed in her memory each year