Weep

Judges 11:29-40

Come, my sisters, my brothers, and weep with me....
Weep for our lost daughters

Weep, my sisters, for the unnamed daughter of Jephthah

Jephthah the warrior,
Jephthah anointed by God's spirit,

Jephthah who vowed a vow that must be fulfilled
Jephthah vowed a sacrifice to God
Jephthah gambled away his daughter's life for a battle won

Out she came, his unnamed daughter,
Out she came singing, ready to celebrate her father's return,
And his vow turned to dust in his mouth

Weep, my sisters, weep with me
Weep for all the daughters who die, the unnamed girls who perish
Weep for those whose lives are gambled away
By cowardly legislators
By woman-hating rhetoric
By eternal, infernal images of grotesquerie and violence

Weep with me
Let your song turn to dust in your mouth

Let a custom arise in Israel, in Pennsylvania, in Montreal, in Colorado
Let the women and girls
And also the men and the boys
Set aside days in each year
In which they simply
Weep

Weep

from Magdalene's Musings