Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. He was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Jephthah. Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Israel. When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob. They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.”
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the children of Ammon. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivers them before me, will I be your head?”
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.
Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”
The king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore that territory again peaceably.”
Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; and he said to him, “Jephthah says: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon; but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh, then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab, but he refused; so Israel stayed in Kadesh. Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’ But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the side of the Arnon for three hundred years! Why didn’t you recover them within that time? Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May Yahweh the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”
However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can’t go back.”
She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.” Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”
He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 37 Hebrew, a man of mighty force.
Hebrew, a man of mighty force.
Or, victualler.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–40 Jdg 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty…
Jdg 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he [was] the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.
Ver. 1. Was a mighty man of valour.] Magna vi animi et corporis fuit, as Sallust saith of Catiline: He was stout and strong, hardy and able to suffer hardship, as a good soldier should do; one that had done great exploits, and had oft looked death in the face upon great adventures in the field.
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And he was the son of an harlot.] A bastard this was a blur to him, through the fault of his parents. The Hebrews call such a one Mamzer that is, a strange blot: the Greeks, υβριδα, a reproach. The English, in disgrace of such births call all whores harlots, from Arlett, a skinner’s daughter, on whom Robert Duke of Normandy begat our William the Conqueror. Howbeit God made choice of such a one here to be a deliverer of his people; and hath registred him among other of his worthies, famous for their faith. {Heb 11:32} This is for the comfort of bastards, if believers and born of God. {Joh 1:12-13} We read in our Chronicles of one Faustus, the son of Vortiger, who wept himself blind for the sin of his incestuous parents. And that David had good assurance that the child born of his adultery with Bathsheba went to heaven, is gathered from those words of his, "I shall go to him; he shall not return to me."
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 The Gileadite; so called, either from his father Gilead,…
The Gileadite; so called, either from his father Gilead, Jos 17:1,2, or from the mountain or city of Gilead, the place of his birth or abode.
The son of an harlot, i.e. a bastard; for though such were not ordinarily to enter into the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2, yet God can dispense with his own laws, and hath sometimes done honour to base-born persons, so far, that some of them were admitted to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gilead; one of the children of that ancienter Gilead, Num 32:1; Jos 17:1.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 12, 29 The princes and people of Gilead we left, in…
The princes and people of Gilead we left, in the close of the foregoing chapter, consulting about the choice of a general, having come to this resolve, that whoever would undertake to lead their forces against the children of Ammon should by common consent be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. The enterprise was difficult, and it was fit that so great an encouragement as this should be proposed to him that would undertake it. Now all agreed that Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty man of valour, and very fit for that purpose, none so fit as he, but he lay under three disadvantages: - 1. He was the son of a harlot (Jdg 11:1), of a strange woman (Jdg 11:2), one that was neither a wife nor a concubine; some think his mother was a Gentile; so Josephus, who calls him a stranger by the mother's side. An Ishmaelite, say the Jews. If his mother was a harlot, that was not his fault, however it was his disgrace. Men ought not to be reproached with any of the infelicities of their parentage or extraction, so long as they are endeavouring by their personal merits to roll away the reproach. The son of a harlot, if born again, born from above, shall be accepted of God, and be as welcome as any other to the glorious liberties of his children. Jephthah could not read in the law the brand there put on the Ammonites, the enemies he was to grapple with, that they should not enter into the congregation of the Lord, but in the same paragraph he met with that which looked black upon himself, that a bastard should be in like manner excluded, Deu 23:2, Deu 23:3. But if that law means, as most probably it does, only those that are born of incest, not of fornication, he was not within the reach of it. 2. He had been driven from his country by his brethren. His father's legitimate children, insisting upon the rigour of the law, thrust him out from having any inheritance with them, without any consideration of his extraordinary qualifications, which merited a dispensation, and would have made him a mighty strength and ornament of their family, if they had overlooked his being illegitimate and admitted him to a child's part, Jdg 11:2. One would not have thought this abandoned youth was intended to be Israel's deliverer and judge, but God often humbles those whom he designs to exalt, and makes that stone the head of the corner which the builders refused; so Joseph, Moses, and David, the three most eminent of the shepherds of Israel, were all thrust out by men, before they were called of God to their great offices. 3. He had, in his exile, headed a rabble, Jdg 11:3. Being driven out by his brethren, his great soul would not suffer him either to dig or beg, but by his sword he must live; and, being soon noted for his bravery, those that were reduced to such straits, and animated by such a spirit, enlisted themselves under him. Vain men they are here called, that is, men that had run through their estates and had to seek for a livelihood. These went out with him, not to rob or plunder, but to hunt wild beasts, and perhaps to make incursions upon those countries which Israel was entitled to, but had not as yet come to the possession of, or were some way or other injured by. This is the man that must save Israel. That people had by their idolatry made themselves children of whoredoms, and aliens from God and his covenant, and therefore, though God upon their repentance will deliver them, yet, to mortify them and remind them of their sin, he chooses to do it by a bastard and an exile.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–38 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of…
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour,.... Jephthah had his name of Gileadite either from his father, whose name was Gilead, or from the city and country in which he was born, which is most likely, and so was of the same country with the preceding judge; and he was a man of great strength and valour, and which perhaps became known by his successful excursions on parties of the enemies of Israel, the Ammonites, being at the head of a band of men, who lived by the booty they got from them:
and he was the son of an harlot; the Targum says, an innkeeper; and, according to Kimchi, she was a concubine, which some reckoned no better than an harlot, but such are not usually called so; some Jewish writers will have her to be one of another tribe his father ought not to have married; and others, that she was of another nation, a Gentile, so Josephus (c): and, according to Patricides (d), he was the son of a Saracen woman; but neither of these are sufficient to denominate her a harlot:
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and Gilead begat Jephthah; he was his son; this was a descendant of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, called after the name of his great ancestor.
(c) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 7. (d) Apud Selden. de Success. ad leg. Ebr. c. 3. p. 32.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 The birth of Jephthah, rejected by his brethren, ver.…
The birth of Jephthah, rejected by his brethren, ver. 1-3. The Gileadites chuse him for their general, ver. 4-11. His treating with the king of Ammon, ver. 12-28. His war with, and victory over the Ammonites, ver. 29-33. His vow and the performance of it, ver. 34-40.
Gileadite - So called, either from his father Gilead, or from the mountain, or city of Gilead, the place of his birth. Son of a harlot - That is, a bastard. And though such were not ordinarily to enter into the congregation of the Lord, Deut. xxiii, 2. Yet God can dispense with his own laws, and hath sometimes done honour to base-born persons, so far, that some of them were admitted to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Gilead - One of the children of that ancient Gilead, Num. xxxii, 1.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 The history of Jephthah, and his covenant with the…
CHAPTER XI
The history of Jephthah, and his covenant with the Gileadites,
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1-10.
He is elected by the people, 11.
Sends an embassy to the king of the Ammonites, to inquire why
they invaded Israel; and receives an answer, to which he sends
back a spirited reply, 12-27.
This is disregarded by the Ammonites, and Jephthah prepares for
battle, 28, 29.
His vow, 30, 31.
He attacks and defeats them, 32, 33.
On his return to Mizpeh he is met by his daughter, whom,
according to his vow, he dedicates to the Lord, 34-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. Now Jephthah - was the son of a harlot] I think the word זונה zonah, which we here render harlot, should be translated, as is contended for on Jos 2:1, viz. a hostess, keeper of an inn or tavern for the accommodation of travellers; and thus it is understood by the Targum of Jonathan on this place: והוא בר אתתא פונדקיתא vehu bar ittetha pundekitha, "and he was the son of a woman, a tavern keeper." See the note referred to above. She was very probably a Canaanite, as she is called, Jdg 11:2, a strange woman, אשה אחרת ishshah achereth, a woman of another race; and on this account his brethren drove him from the family, as he could not have a full right to the inheritance, his mother not being an Israelite.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40 Jdg 11:1. Jephthah the Gileadite — So called, either…
Jdg 11:1. Jephthah the Gileadite — So called, either from his father Gilead, or from the mountain, or city of Gilead, the place of his birth. Son of a harlot — That is, a bastard. And though such were not ordinarily to enter into the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2; yet God can dispense with his own laws, and hath sometimes done honour to base-born persons, so far, that some of them were admitted to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Gilead begat Jephthah — One of the children of that ancient Gilead, Num 32:1.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40 The history of Jephthah appears to be an independent…
The history of Jephthah appears to be an independent history inserted by the compiler of the Book of Judges. Jdg 11:4-5 introduce the Ammonite war without any apparent reference to Jdg 10:17-18.
A genealogy of Manasseh 1Ch 7:14-17 gives the families which sprang from Gilead, and among them mention is made of an “Aramitess” concubine as the mother of one family. Jephthah, the son of Gilead by a strange woman, fled, after his father’s death, to the land of Tob Jdg 11:3, presumably the land of his maternal ancestors (compare Jdg 9:1) and an “Aramean” settlement (2Sa 10:6, 2Sa 10:8; 1 Macc. 5:13). It is difficult to conceive that Jephthah was literally the son of Gilead, if Gilead was the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh. Possibly “Gilead” here denotes the heir of Gilead, the head of the family, whose individual name has not been preserved, nor the time when he lived.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 Harlot. Hebrew Zona, Josue ii. 1. It is uncertain…
Harlot. Hebrew Zona, Josue ii. 1. It is uncertain whether she was properly a concubine, or a wife of inferior dignity. She lived with her son in the house of Galaad; (Calmet) at least the latter was in his father’s house. (Haydock) --- Hence Jephte complains that he had been expelled, not that he was debarred from enjoying his father’s inheritance, and consequently the law was not observed in his regard. Moses makes no provision for illegitimate children, but he excludes the son of a mamzer from the church of God, Deuteronomy xxiii. 2. Some think that the mother of Jephte was of a nation with whom it was not lawful to marry. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] v. 9.) Said. (Grotius) --- Serarius believes that his father was already married, when he had to do with this harlot. (Menochius) --- But he might have first taken her to wife, without the usual formalities. (Drusius; Cornelius a Lapide) --- It is equally uncertain whether Jephte was of the tribe of Gad or of Manasses, as both occupied the country of Galaad. Interpreters generally conclude that he was of one of these tribes, and most probably of the latter; his father also was called Galaad. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 29, 34 The previous history and exile of Jephthah. His recall…
The previous history and exile of Jephthah. His recall by the elders of Gilead.
Jdg_11:1-11.
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1Now [And] Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour [a valiant hero], and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. 2And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his [the] wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust [drove] out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for 3thou art the son of a strange [another] woman. Then [And] Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered [there gathered themselves] vain men [lit. empty men, i. e. adventurers]1 to Jephthah, and went out with him. 4And it came to pass in process of [after a considerable] time, that the children [sons] of Ammon made war against [with] Israel. 5And it was so, that when the children [sons] of Ammon made war against [with] Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob: 6And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may [and let us] fight with the children [sons] of Ammon. 7And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? 8And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children 9[sons] of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home [back] again to fight against the children [sons] of Ammon, and the Lord [Jehovah] deliver them before me, shall I [then I will] be your head? [.] 10And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The Lord [Jehovah] be witness [lit. hearer] between us, if we do not so according to thy words [word]. 11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people2 made [placed] him [for a] head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord [Jehovah] in Mizpeh [Mizpah].
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg_11:3—רֵיקִים. Dr. Cassel here (cf. Jdg_9:4) renders, lose Leute, loose, unsettled persons. In his article on “Jephthah” in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopädie, vi. 466, he describes them as—“people who had nothing to lose. The character and condition of such persons is more definitely described in 1Sa_22:2, where distressed persons, embarrassed debtors, and men of wild dispositions, are said to have attached themselves to the fugitive David.” To prevent erroneous inferences, it is necessary to add the next sentence: “But that Jephthah, like David, engaged in marauding expeditions, cannot be proved.”—Tr.]
[2 Jdg_11:11.—הָעָם. Dr. Cassel: Gesammtheit—“the collective body,”—evidently with reference to his previous rendering in Jdg_10:18. Cf. note 1, p. 161.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
The story of Jephthah is one of the most remarkable episodes of the Sacred Scriptures. But at the same time it is one of those episodes which, from being too exclusively considered in the character of disconnected fragments, have been subjected both anciently and in modern times, to the most singular misapprehensions and distortions. It gives the moral likeness of an Israelitish tribe, in the time of its awakening and return to God. Manasseh is again the coöperating tribe,—not the western half, however, but the eastern, its equal in warlike spirit (1Ch_5:24) and strength, but holding a relation to the hero who appears among them different from that formerly held by the other toward Gideon. When Gideon entered on his work, everything depended on his own personality. No divine awakening had preceded, not even in his own city. In his own house, there was an altar to be destroyed. The number of those who deserved to be his followers was only three hundred. Even in the time of his success and greatness, it is he alone who keeps and upholds the divine life in the nation.
The history of Jephthah furnishes a different picture. Gilead too had sinned, but it had repented. The whole people had put away its false gods, before it found its hero. This hero, on his part, finds himself supported by a spiritually awakened tribe, thoroughly animated with the spirit of faith and obedience toward Jehovah. Every part of the picture is projected on a background of true piety. Jephthah is the hero, the leader, the head of the tribe: but he is not the only one whose eyes are fixed on God; the whole tribe, like members of the head, obey the same attraction. It is only because this background was ignored, i. e. because the connection between chapters 10 and 11 was overlooked, that the principal incident in the history of Jephthah has from the earliest times given rise to such singular explanations.
Jdg_11:1-2. And Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant hero. The same terms were applied to Gideon by the Messenger of God (Jdg_6:12). The nobles of Gilead had determined (Jdg_10:18) to elect as their leader, him who should give evidence that God is with him, by beginning to wage successful warfare. Thereupon the narrative proceeds: “And Jephthah was a valiant hero.” It was he concerning whom they learned that he answered their description. His history is then related. A noble of Gilead had begotten him by a public harlot, and taken him into his house. The name of the father is unknown. In the statement: “Gilead begat Jephthah;” and also when we read of the “wife of Gilead;” the term “Gilead,” as tribe name, takes the place of the unknown personal name. Not, indeed, as if “Gilead” could not be a personal name; but if it were, Jephthah would have been designated as “son of Gilead,” and not as a “Gileadite,” without any paternal surname, as he is styled at the first mention, when he enters on the scene, and at the last, when he dies (Jdg_12:7). This conclusion is strengthened by a comparison with the names of other heroes; with that of his predecessor Gideon, for instance, who is constantly styled the “son of Joash;” and also, among others, with that of one of his successors, “Elon the Zebulonite (Jdg_12:11), as to whom there can be no doubt that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and had no more definite patronymic.—The father, subsequently, had other sons by his lawful wife. These, when they had grown up, and their father had died, expelled Gideon from the house, although the eldest; for, said they,—
Thou art the son of another woman (אַחֶרֶת אִשָּׁה). “Other” is here to be taken in a bad sense, as in the expression “other (acherim) gods.” As those are spurious gods, so “another ishah” is a spurious wife. The expulsion of Jephthah was a base act; for his father had reared him in his house, and left him there, and he was the oldest child. The act cannot be compared with the removal of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah from the house of Abraham. Those the father himself dismissed with presents. But Jephthah’s father had kept him in the house, and had thus signified his purpose to treat him as a son. Nevertheless, Jephthah could obtain no redress from the “elders of Gilead” (Jdg_11:7). If he had been the son of one who was properly a wife, his brothers would doubtless have been obliged to admit him to a share in the inheritance; for Rachel, the ancestress of Gilead, had also several co-wives, whose sons—of whom, be it observed in passing, Gad in Gilead was one—inherited as well as Joseph himself. But they maintained that his mother had not been a wife of their father at all, not even one of secondary rank,—that she was nothing but an harlot. On the ground of bastardy, they could drive him out of the house; and at that time, no voice raised itself in Gilead but that of mockery and hatred toward Jephthah. Such being the case he fled.
Jdg_11:3. And dwelt in the land of Tob. The name Tob is found again in 2Sa_10:6, in connection with a war of the Ammonites against king David. Its subsequent mention in the Books of the Maccabees (1Ma_5:13; 2Ma_12:17), as Τώβ, Τούβ, affords no material assistance to any attempt at identification. But since Jephthah flees thither as to an asylum; and since adventurers collect about him there, as in a region of safety, whence he is able to make successful expeditions, we may be justified perhaps to hazard a conjecture which would tend to increase our knowledge of the Hauran. Erets tob (אֶרֶץ טוֹב) means good land, and fertile, as Canaan is said to be (Exo_3:8). The best land in Hauran, still named from its fertility, and with which Wetzstein has made us again acquainted, is the Ruhbeh, in eastern Hauran. Its name signifies, “fertile cornfield.” It is the best land in Syria. It is still the seat of Bedouin tribes, who extend their pillaging expeditions far and wide. Of the present tribes, Wetzstein relates that they frequently combine with the Zubêd, whose name reminds us of the Zabadeans (1Ma_12:31). Their land is an excellent place of refuge, difficult of attack, and easily defended.
At the head of adventurous persons whom the report which soon went out concerning his valor, had collected about him, he made warlike expeditions like those of David (1Sa_22:2), directed, as David’s were also, against the enemies of his nation. Of the son of Jesse, it is true, we know for certain that, notwithstanding his banishment, he attacked and defeated the Philistines (cf. 1Sa_23:1 ff.); but though we have no such direct statements concerning Jephthah, we yet have good grounds for concluding that his expeditions were directed against the Ammonites. For he evinced himself to be a mighty hero; and the Gileaditish nobles had pledged themselves to elect him as their head who should initiate victories over Ammon. Therefore, when their choice falls on Jephthah, it must be because they have heard of his deeds in the land of Tob against this enemy.—Modern writers, especially, have made a real Abällino of Jephthah, steeped in blood and pillage. The character belongs to him as little as to David. Though banished, he was a valiant guerilla chieftain of his people against their enemies. He was the complete opposite of an Abimelech. The latter sought adventurers (רֵיקִים) for a wicked deed; to Jephthah, as to David, they come of their own accord and subordinate themselves to him. Abimelech was without cause an enemy of his father’s house, and dipped his sword in the blood of his own brothers. Jephthah, banished and persecuted by his brothers, turned his strength against the enemies of Israel; and when recalled, cherished neither revenge nor grudge in his heart. Abimelech had fallen away from God; Jephthah was his faithful servant. All this appears from his words and conduct.
Jdg_11:4-6. And after a considerable time it came to pass that the sons of Ammon made war with Israel. It was during the time of sin and impenitence, that Jephthah was driven away by violence and hatred. He returned as an elderly man, with a grown-up daughter. The Ammonitish conflict and oppression lasted eighteen years. The flight of Jephthah to Tob occurred probably some time previous to the beginning of these troubles. In the course of these years he had acquired fame, rest, house, and possessions. He had found God, and God was with him. If this were not his character, he would not have met the “elders of Gilead” as he did. Meanwhile, however, another spirit had asserted itself in Gilead also. For it is the sign of new life, that the elders of Gilead do not shun the humiliation of going to Jephthah. To be sure, they must have been informed that he also served no strange gods; for how otherwise could he be of service to them? In any case, however, it was no small matter to go to the hero whom, not his brothers only, but they also, the judges, had once ignominiously driven forth, and now say to him: Come with us, and be our captain! (קָצין: a leader in war, and according to later usage in peace also.)
Jdg_11:7-9. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did ye not hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? The interview between him and the elders affords a striking proof of the subduing influence which the confession of God exercises, even over persons of vigorous and warlike spirits. Jephthah’s speech does not conceal the reproach, that after the hard treatment he received, they should have invited him back before this, not first now when they are in distress. He speaks in a strain similar to that in which the voice of God itself had recently addressed Israel (Jdg_10:11).
And nobly do “the elders” answer him. For that very reason, say they, because we are in distress, do we come to thee. Such being the fact, thou wilt surely come. Did matters stand differently, thou wouldest probably (and not unjustly) refuse; but as it is, we call thee to go with us to fight, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. The satisfaction thus made to Jephthah is indeed great; but the danger and responsibility to which he is invited are not less eminent. His answer, nevertheless, exhibits no longer any trace of sensitiveness or pride. If his tribe call him to fight, he will obey their summons—as all heroes have ever done, who loved their native land. He, however, does it under a yet nobler impulse. Under other circumstances—such is the underlying thought—I would not have come to be your head. If you were now as heretofore, who would wish to come! for far as it is from being a blessing to the trees when the thorn-bush reigns, so far is it from pleasing to a noble mind to rule over thorn-bushes. But since you come to get me to fight with you against Ammon—full of a new spirit, so that I can cherish the hope that God will deliver the enemy before me—I consent to be your head. It is not to be overlooked that Jephthah speaks of “Jehovah,” not of “Elohim,” and that he places the issue in God’s hand; for, as Judges 10 teaches, Gilead had learned to see that only God can help. Jephthah is called because God’s Spirit is recognized in him. Verse 9 has often been taken as a question; a construction which Keil has already, and very properly, rejected.3 The position of affairs has altogether erroneously been so apprehended, as if Jephthah were fearful lest, after victory achieved, they would then no longer recognize him as head, and wished to assure himself on this point beforehand. This view originates in the failure to perceive the spiritual background on which the action is projected. Jephthah is not a man who will be their head at any cost. There is no trace of ambition in his language. He is willing to be their head, if they are such members as will insure the blessing of God. Whoever knows his countrymen as he knew them, and has himself turned to God, will not be willing to be their leader, unless they have become other than they were. For that reason he says: If you bring me back, in order truly and unitedly to fight Ammon, and be worthy of God’s blessing,—in that case, I will be your head. The guaranty of victory is sought by this valiant man, not in his own courage, but in the worthiness of the warriors before God.
Jdg_11:10. Jehovah be a hearer between us, if we do not so according to thy word. They invoke God, whom they have penitently supplicated, as witness; they swear by Him that they will do whatever Jephthah will command. They give him thereby a guaranty, not only that as soldiers they will obey their general, but also that in their conduct towards God they will be guided by their leader’s instruction and direction. For not in military discipline only, but much rather in the moral and religious spirit by which Israel is animated, lies his hope of victory.
Jdg_11:11. And Jephthah spake all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah. Jephthah goes along; the people—the collective nobility—make him head and leader; but not by means of sin and dishonor, as Abimelech became king. Jephthah receives his appointment from the hand of God. In the spirit of God, he enters on his work. As chieftain, it devolves on him to tell his people what course must be pursued: he does it in the presence of God. It is the ancient God of Israel before whom, at Mizpah, where the people are encamped, he issues his regulations, addresses, and military orders. On Mizpah, see at Jdg_11:29.
Keil has justly repelled the idea that the expression לִפְנֵי יְהוָֹה, “before Jehovah,” necessarily implies a solemn sacrificial ceremony. But, on the other hand, the impossibility of such a solemnity cannot be maintained. Whatever the ceremonial may have been, the meaning is, that Jephthah, in speaking all his words before God, thereby confessed Jehovah and his law, in contradistinction to heathenism and idolatry. In the spirit of this confession, he entered on his office.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The manner in which divine compassion fills men with his Spirit, for the salvation of Israel, is wonderful. The inquiry into the origin of the heroes who suddenly arise in Israel, and in nations generally, to deliver and save, is one which leads down into the profoundest depths of divine wisdom. The selection of every Israelitish Judge is a new sign of compassion, but also of corrective chastening. For presumption and self-sufficiency were always at the bottom of their apostasies. Hence, in the selection of the Judges, the admonition to humility becomes continually more urgent. Israel is made to know that God chooses whom He wills, and raises from the dust him whom the people will place at their head. They have already experienced this in the cases of Ehud, the left-handed, of Deborah, a woman, of Gideon, the youngest and least of his family. All these, however, had been well-born persons, connected with the people by normal relations. In Jephthah’s case, the choice becomes still more extraordinary. A bastard, an exile and adventurer, must be gone after. The magnates of the land must humble themselves to bring the exile home, to submit themselves to him, and make him the head of the tribe. That they do it, is proof of their repentance; that the choice is just, is shown by the result.
Thus, many a stone, rejected by the builders, has, typically, even before Christ, become the head of the corner. Unbelief deprives a nation of judgment. To discern spirits, is a work to be done only by an inward life in God. Sin expels whomsoever it cannot overcome; but penitence recalls him, whenever it perceives the ground of its own distress. Only he, however, returns without a grudge in his heart, who shares in the penitence.
Starke: Men are accustomed to go the nearest way; but God commonly takes a roundabout way, when He designs to make one noble and great.4—The same: Happy he, who in all he speaks and does looks with holy reverence, even though it be not expressed in words, to the omniscient and omnipresent God; for this is the true foundation of all faithfulness and integrity.
[Bp. Hall: The common gifts of God respect not the parentage or blood, but are indifferently scattered where He pleases to let them fall. The choice of the Almighty is not guided by our rules: as in spiritual, so in earthly things, it is not in him that willeth.—Scott: As the sins of parents so often occasion disgrace and hardship to their children, this should unite with higher motives, to induce men to govern their passions according to the law of God.—Bush: The pretense of legal right, is often a mere cover to the foulest wrongs and injuries.—Henry: The children of Israel were assembled and encamped, Jdg_10:17; but, like a body without a head, they owned they could not light without a commander. So necessary it is to all societies that there be some to rule, and others to obey, rather than that every man be his own master. Blessed be God for government, for a good government!—Bp. Hall (on Jdg_11:7): Can we look for any other answer from God than this? Did ye not drive me out of your houses, out of your hearts, in the time of your health and jollity? Did ye not plead the strictness of, my charge, and the weight of my yoke? Did not your willful sins expel me from your souls? What do you now, crouching and creeping to me in the evil day?—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][Jdg_11:3—רֵיקִים. Dr. Cassel here (cf. Jdg_9:4) renders, lose Leute, loose, unsettled persons. In his article on “Jephthah” in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopädie, vi. 466, he describes them as—“people who had nothing to lose. The character and condition of such persons is more definitely described in 1Sa_22:2, where distressed persons, embarrassed debtors, and men of wild dispositions, are said to have attached themselves to the fugitive David.” To prevent erroneous inferences, it is necessary to add the next sentence: “But that Jephthah, like David, engaged in marauding expeditions, cannot be proved.”—Tr.]
[2][Jdg_11:11.—הָעָם. Dr. Cassel: Gesammtheit—“the collective body,”—evidently with reference to his previous rendering in Jdg_10:18. Cf. note 1, p. 161.—Tr.]
[3][Keil observes that the reply of the elders in Jdg_11:10, כִּדְבָרְךָ כֵּן נַעְשֶׂד, “presupposes an affirmative, not an interrogative utterance on the part of Jephthah.” The אָנֹכִי (Jdg_11:9) is simply the emphatic correlative of the preceding אַתֵּם.—Tr.]
[4][Jdg_11:13.—Dr. Cassel omits “Because.” כִּי, in this place, may be either the sign of a direct quotation, as which it would be sufficiently indicated by a colon after “Jephthah”; or a causal conjunction (E. V., De Wette). If the latter, the sentence is elliptical: “We have much to do with each other,” or, “I am come to fight against thee,” because, etc.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34 Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house--As there…
Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house--As there were children by the legitimate wife, the son of the secondary one was not entitled to any share of the patrimony, and the prior claim of the others was indisputable. Hence, as the brothers of Jephthah seem to have resorted to rude and violent treatment, they must have been influenced by some secret ill-will.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 ELECTION OF JEPHTHAH, Jdg_11:1-11.
ELECTION OF JEPHTHAH, Jdg_11:1-11.
This chapter should have begun with Jdg_11:17 of the preceding chapter, where the history of Jephthah properly begins.
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1. Gileadite — Like Jair, Jephthah was a native of the land of Gilead, and, what is noticeable also, his father’s name was Gilead. He was probably a descendant of Gilead, the grandson of Manasseh. Num_26:29. We see no sufficient reason to take Gilead here as the name of the country, or a tribal name used in place of an unknown personal name.
A mighty man of valour — Distinguished for great physical strength, skill in the use of arms, and boldness of character.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 1. Jephthah] Hebr. Yiphtaḥ, probably a shortened form of…
1. Jephthah] Hebr. Yiphtaḥ, probably a shortened form of Yiphtaḥ-el = God will open; cf. Pethah-iah Ezr_10:23. The full form occurs as the name of a town Jos_19:14; Jos_19:27.
the Gileadite] See on Jdg_10:3. The land of Gilead generally included the country E. of Jordan between the W. el-Menâḍire (Yarmuk), S. of the Sea of Galilee, and W. Ḥesbân near the upper end of the Dead Sea. Sometimes it included the Moabite territory as far S. as the Arnon (W. el-Môjîb).
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Gilead begat Jephthah] Gilead, properly the name of a region or its population, is here and in Jdg_11:2, Jos_17:1 f., 1Ch_7:14 ff., regarded as a person, i.e. tribal history is related as though it were the domestic history of an individual; see Driver, HDB. s.v. Gilead. These words and the verse which follows evidently come from the late editor, begat is the usual term in the genealogies of P and Chron.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 (1) The son of an harlot.—The words are so…
(1) The son of an harlot.—The words are so rendered in all the versions, and can hardly have any other meaning. If an inferior wife had been meant, the word used would not have been zonah, but pilgesh, as in Jdg_8:31. The word may, however, be used in the harsh sense of the brethren of Jephthah, without being strictly accurate. (Comp. 1Ch_2:26.)
Gilead begat Jephthah.—We are here met by the same questions as those which concern Tola and Jair. That Gilead is a proper name, not the name of the country mythically personified, may be regarded as certain. But is this Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, or some later Gilead? or does “begat” mean “was the ancestor of?” The answer to these questions depends mainly upon the insoluble problem of the chronology; but we may note (1) that since no other Gilead is mentioned, we should naturally infer that this is the grandson of Manasseh; and (2) that the fact referred to in the obscure genealogy of 1Ch_7:14-17 seems to show that the family of Manasseh had Syrian (Aramean) connections, and Jephthah’s mother may have been an Aramitess from the district of Tob. The name Jephthah means “he opens” (the womb).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 Vers. 1-11. The narrative here goes back probably some…
Vers. 1-11. The narrative here goes back probably some years, to explain the antecedents of Jephthah, who was about to play so prominent a part in the ensuing history. Jephthah we learn was a bastard son of Gilead by a foreign harlot, an Aramitess, if there is any connection between this verse and 1Ch_7:14; and when the sons of Gilead"s wife were grown up, they expelled Jephthah, and refused to let him have any share in the inheritance of their father, because he was the son of a foreigner; Jephthah therefore fled from Gilead, and took up his residence in the land of Tob, apparently an Aramean settlement, (2Sa_10:6, 2Sa_10:8) and presumably the land of his mother"s birth, where he gathered round him "vain men", (Jud_1:9:4) and became a famous freebooter. There he was at the time of the Ammonite invasion mentioned in Jud_1:10:17, and thither the Gileadites sent for him to come and be their captain, after the consultation in Jud_1:10:18, with the promise that if he came heshould be the head or prince of all the inhabitants of Gilead. After some demur he agreed, and came, and was installed as head of the State at the Gileadite metropolis of Mizpah. (Jud_1:10:17, note)
Jephthah the Gileadite. Gilead has two meanings: it is the name of the country so called, (Jud_1:10:8, note) and it is the name of the son or descendant of Machir the son of Manasseh. (1Ch_7:14, 17 Num_26:29, Num_26:30) Gileadite also may be explained in two ways: it may mean an inhabitant of Gilead, (Jud_1:10:18) or it may mean a member of the family of the Gileadites, either an actual son or a more remote descendant of Gilead (Num_26:29) two meanings which would usually coincide. Gilead begat Jephthah. Here Gilead must mean the person so called, i.e. the son or descendant of Machir, from whom the family, including Jephthah, were called Gileadites; but whether son or descendant cannot positively be affirmed. All that is certain is that he was that one of Maehir"s descendants who was the head of that division of the Manassites who were called Gileadites. Again, when it is said Gilead begat Jephthah, we cannot be certain whether it is meant that Gilead was Jephthah"s father, or merely his ancestor. (see Jud_1:10:3, note)
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Vers. 1-28. The controversy.
The first element of peace, whether in private or in national controversies, whether in civil or religious disputes, is the genuine desire to be fair. When men have that spirit of justice that they do not desire to claim anything which is not really theirs, or to withhold from their opponents anything that is their due; when their aim is to ascertain what is true, and not to overbear truth by force; when they strive for truth, and not merely for victory there is a fair chance of both sides arriving at the same result, and so being at peace. The first step in any dispute, therefore, should be a calm and careful examination of the facts of the case. It should not be taken for granted that the views which self-interest, or personal predilection, or party prejudice, incline us to are the right ones, but we should remember that our opponents have equal rights with ourselves, and-that it is at least possible that their predilections and prejudices may rest upon as good grounds as our own. A fair and impartial examination of the facts of the case is therefore the first step in every controversy; and that the examination may be fair, we should patiently allow our opponent to state his own case in his own way. The same fact may wear a different aspect according to the mode of stating it, and according to the side of it which is brought prominently into view. Thus Jephthah acted fairly when he asked the king of the sons of Ammon to state the grounds on which he invaded Israel, and when on his side he refuted that statement by a historical retrospect of the transactions in question. Though, however, the spirit of fairness gives the best chance of an amicable settlement of controversies, it does not always lead to such a settlement. Often fairness on one side is met by prejudice and unfairness on the other. But even when both parties arc actuated by the like desire of getting at the rights of a question, it may happen that there is that measure of doubt in some matter on which the controversy hinges, that honest minds may differ about it, and that it is inevitable that men"s different interests, prepossessions, and prejudices, should incline them different ways. Thus in Jephthah"s controversy with the Ammonites there was room for doubt how far the defeat and dispossession of the children of Ammon by the Amorites had for ever extinguished the claim of the former to the ownership of the land. That Israel had not taken the land from the children of Ammon, or displayed any hostility towards them, was undoubtedly true. But it did not necessarily follow that the Ammonite claim was wholly unrighteous. The question how long a time it takes to establish or to invalidate ownership is obviously a debateable one, in the decision of which personal feelings will carry much weight. In the Franco-German war of 1870 the Germans no doubt felt about Alsace and Lorraine that even 200 years possession by France had not wholly abrogated the German rights. And so it may have been with the king of the children of Ammon. He may have thought that he was justified in claiming the land which had once belonged to his people; and the matter could only be decided by the arbitrament of war. The practical lesson, however, to be learnt is, in all the business of life, whether in politics, or commerce, or in social intercourse, or in religion, to cultivate a spirit of fairness. In religious controversies especially the value of fairness, with a view to truth, and to the peace of the Church, cannot be overrated. It is as humiliating to our Christian character as it is prejudicial to the real interests of religion, when men approach religious questions in a spirit of heated partisanship, seeking only to crush their opponents by ridicule, or abuse, or vehemence, and treating them with insult and indignity. It is no less painful to see falsehood, and suppression of truth, and pious frauds, imported into controversies, the professed object of which is to vindicate the glory of God and the truth of his holy word. If religious controversialists would approach all subjects of difference in a spirit of thorough fairness, would look at their adversaries" arguments with a sincere desire to understand and appreciate them, would give due weight to them, and would believe it possible that they may have reason and justice on their side, there would be a good chance of agreement on many points which now keep Christians hopelessly asunder. And if there should remain some points on which temperament, or education, or habits of thought, in different men, were too diverse to admit of unanimity on doubtful points, then heavenly charity would step forward and maintain that agreement in love which could not be attained in opinion. The unity of the spirit would not be broken, the peace of the Church would not be violated, and the enemies of the gospel would not find their way to victory through the divisions and hatreds of the servants of one Lord. May the Spirit of God come as a Spirit of fairness upon all that name the name of Jesus Christ!
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR. Vers. 1-3. The shaping influences of life.
These different in their nature from that of which the poet speaks s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will" (Hamlet, 5:2) It is an anticipative part they play. In many lives the manner in which they are thus influenced is apparent; but even when otherwise the effect is none the less powerful and lasting. It has been questioned whether this be not the most important part of the work of creation. Of these influences, notice
I HOW STRONG AND VARIED THEY ARE.
1. In Jephthah"s birth. He was a child of shame, the fruit of an age of licentiousness and idolatry. He receives the title Gileadite, yet it is said Gilead was his father; he must therefore either have had a father with such a name, a member of the tribe of Manasseh, living in Gilead, or, having no clear proof of his paternity, have received the tribal name in that relation. A foundling, with a shameful mystery lying behind his life.
2. In the behaviour of men towards him. Those who were his brethren according to the flesh acted a most unbrotherly part. Either from selfishness or a false feeling of shame, they expelled him from his father"s house, closing the door of peaceful, honourable toil, and compelling him to resort to a career of bloodshed and irregularity. The very men who might, any of them, have committed a like sin to that of Jephthah"s father are forward to rid themselves of its results. The world judges of men rather from their misfortunes than from their personal misdeeds. And where nature has been unkind, "man"s inhumanity to man" is only the more signal. A social stigma is worse to bear up against than many of the greatest calamities which do not involve it.
3. In the force of his circumstances as they arose. He is compelled to take up his abode in a far off border town, near to Ammon, the hereditary enemy of Israel, and surrounded by the conditions of a desert life, where he had to be "a law unto himself." A life of guerilla warfare, with its comparatively loose morale, is thrust upon him. Men of like misfortune and disposition, all more or less compromised with their tribes or nations, gather about him, and look to him for direction and initiative. But
II NEVERTHELESS, THEY DO NOT DETERMINE DESTINY. He has somehow managed to preserve a measure of morality and religious observance, even in that wilderness stronghold. The worship of Jehovah is maintained, and the heart of the chieftain beats true to all the traditions of Israel. His personal influence and warlike prowess are at its service. His greatest exploits are not those of the private marauder, but of the patriot. It is character alone that determines destiny, and character is in our own keeping. One is continually meeting with such people people who in difficult circumstances are yet kept on the whole pure and faithful. Such were "they of Caesar"s household." And
III IF RIGHTLY ENCOUNTERED THEY MAY REDOUND TO ADVANTAGE AND HONOUR. In the hour of Israel"s need, repentant and humble, its elders approach the outlaw whom they had expelled. The man himself is not prepared for the singular conversion. He questions them suspiciously, nay, with all his magnanimity, reminds them of their different behaviour in years gone by. They admit all; but they are too humbled to make evasion and to conceal their real motive. He is master of the situation. His whole previous training and reputation now stand him in good stead, and he understands a little of God"s dealings with him. The Bible is full of instances of men who have gained power and fame through the overcoming of difficulties. Time and God are on the side of them who, notwithstanding temptation, are found faithful. And is there not One who outshines all others in this? "The stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner." His career is our incentive and example. (Php_2:5-11) Have not all rejected Christ? In our need let us go to him, a nobler than Jephthah. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 34 Jephthah the Gileadite.
Jdg_11:1-33
Jephthah the Gileadite.
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Jephthah
It is common to regard Jephthah as one of the wildest characters of the Bible--a rough and heedless man; alike rash in vowing and heartless in fulfilling; one whom it is strange to find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Jephthah was neither a godless nor a selfish man. Not godless, for we find in the brief annals of his life more copious recognition of God than in the case of most of the other judges; and not selfish, because, forgetting his private wrongs, he devoted his life to the service of his country, and, overcoming his strongest feelings of natural affection, he did with his daughter according to his vow. We shall be nearer the truth if we regard Jephthah as a good man, sadly misguided; a man roughly trained, poorly educated, and very deficient in enlightened views; wishing to serve God, but in great error as to what would prove an acceptable service; a man in whose religion the ideas of his neighbours of Moab and Ammon had a strong though unknown influence; one who, with the deepest loyalty to God, had unconsciously come under the delusion that Jehovah would accept of such an offering as the neighbouring nations offered to their gods. In trying to estimate Jephthah aright it is necessary that we bear his early history vividly in mind. He had the grievous misfortune to have a wicked mother, a woman of abandoned character; and as in these circumstances his father could not have been much better, his childhood must have been very dreary. No good example, no holy home, no mothers affection, no fathers wise and weighty counsel. If Jephthah owed little to his parents, he owed less to his brothers. If he knew little of the sunbeams of parental love, he knew less of the amenities of brotherly affection. By his brothers he was, as we may say, kicked out from his fathers house; he was driven forth into the wide, wide world, to shift as he might; and this under the influence of a motive all too common, but which in this case appears in all its native repulsiveness. It was to prevent him from sharing in his fathers inheritance; to keep to themselves the largest possible share. A wretched revelation truly of family spirit! None of the dew of Hermon here. The life to which, in these circumstances, Jephthah resorted was wild and rough, but was not considered immoral in those wild times. He became a freebooter on the borders of Moab and Ammon, like many a borderer two or three centuries ago in Cumberland or Wigton; carrying on an irregular warfare in the form of raids for plunder; gathering to himself the riff-raff of the country-side. The occupation was very unfavourable to a religious life, and yet somehow (such is the sovereignty of grace) Jephthah evidently acquired deep religious impressions. He was strong against idolatry, and that not merely because it was the religion of his enemies, but because he had a deep regard for the God of Israel, and had been led in some way to recognise the obligation to serve Him only, and to be jealous for His glory. And, partly perhaps through the great self-control which this enabled him to exercise, and the courageous spirit which a living belief in such a God inspired, he had risen to great distinction as a warrior in the mode of life which he followed, so that when a leader was needed to contend with the Ammonites, Jephthah was beyond all question the man most fitted for the post. It is very singular how things come round. What a strange feeling Jephthah must have had when his brothers and old neighbours came to him, inviting and imploring him to become their head; trying as best they could to undo their former unkindness, and get him, for their safety, to assume the post for which not one of them was fitted! It is amazing what an ill-treated man may gain by patiently biding his time. In every history there are parallel incidents to that which now occurred in the ease of Jephthah--that of Coriolanus, for example; but it is not every one who has proved so prompt and patriotic. He gave way to no reproach over the past, but only made conditions for the future which were alike reasonable and moderate. His promptness supplies a great and oft-needed lesson for Christians; showing how ready we should be to forgive and forget ill-treatment; to return blessing for cursing, and good for evil. But let us now notice what was peculiar in Jephthahs mode of accepting office. In contemplating the prospect of the Ammonites being subdued, it is not he, but Jehovah, whom he regards as the victor. (Jdg_11:9); and after he has been made head and captain he utters all his words before the Lord at Mizpeh (verse11). And now it was that he made his fatal vow. He made it as a new pledge of his dependence on God, and desire to honour Him. The strangest thing about the transaction is, that Jephthah should have been allowed in these circumstances to make such a vow. It was common enough in times of great anxiety and danger to devote some much-valued object to God. But Jephthah left it to God, as it were, to select the object. He would not specify it, but would simply engage, if he should return in peace from the children of Ammon, to offer to the Lord whatever should come forth from the doors of his house to meet him. It seemed a pious act to leave to God the selection of that object. Jephthahs error lay in supposing that God would select, that God would accept the responsibility which he laid upon Him. What followed we hardly need to rehearse. But what became of Jephthahs daughter? Undoubtedly the weight of evidence is in favour of the solution that, like Iphigenia at Aulis, Jephthahs daughter was offered as a burnt-offering. It is a shocking thought, and yet not inconsistent with the supposition that essentially Jephthah was a sincere and loyal servant of God. We must remember that he was an unenlightened man, ill brought up, not possessing the cool, well-balanced judgment of one who had calmly and carefully studied things human and Divine with the best lights of the age, but subject to many an impulse and prejudice that had never been corrected, and had at last become rooted in his nature. We must remember that Gilead was the most remote and least enlightened part of the land of Israel, and that all around, among all his Moabite and Ammonite neighbours, the impression prevailed that human sacrifices were acceptable to the gods. This remarkable narrative carries some striking lessons.
1. In the first place, there is a lesson from the strange, unexpected, and most unseasonable combination in Jephthahs experience of triumph and desolation, public joy and private anguish. It seems so unsuitable, when all hearts are wound up to the feeling of triumph, that horror and desolation should come upon them and overwhelm them. But what seems so unseasonable is what often happens. It often seems as if it would be too much for men to enjoy the fulfilment of their highest aspirations without something of an opposite kind. General Wolfe and Lord Nelson dying in the moment of victory are types of a not infrequent experience. At the moment when Ezekiel attains his highest prophetical elevation, his house is made desolate, his wife dies. The millionaire that has scraped and saved and struggled to leave a fortune to his only son is often called to lay him in the grave. Providence has a wonderful store of compensations. Sometimes those who are highest in worldly position are the dreariest and most desolate in heart.
2. Another striking lesson of Jephthahs life concerns the errors of good men. It dissipates the notion that good men cannot go far wrong. But let us learn from Jephthah all the good we can. He was remarkable for two great qualities. He depended for everything on God; he dedicated everything to God. It is the very spirit which the gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to form and promote. Jephthah was willing, according to his light, to give up to God the dearest object of his heart. One thing is very certain. Such sacrifices can be looked for from none but those who have been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. To them, but only to them, God has become all in all. They, and they only, can afford to sacrifice all that is seen and temporal. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?--The elders of Gilead got into trouble, and they said, We are in distress; we turn again to thee, etc. Jephthah mocked them, and said, If I fight for you and win shall I be your head? Who can tell how suggestively he uttered the word your?--head of a mob of ingrates--your: and his heart said, Ha, ha! Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? Why did you not come twelve months ago? Why did you not come when the feast was on the table smoking hot? Why did you not ask me to the dance and the revel and the high glee of Gilead? Here you are like a number of whipped hounds coming to me in your poverty and weakness and humiliation; you have come to the bastard. It was not a resentful speech: it was the eloquence of a noble man. Some people can only be taught when they are whipped. These people belonged to that bad quality. Have we not here a revelation of human nature? Can we boast ourselves against the elders of Gilead and say we are of a higher quality? Are we not all guilty before one another in this very respect? There are some men we never write to except when we want something. They never received a friendly letter from us in their lives. The moment we come into distress or difficulty then we write to those men and call them friends. We pay our friends unconsciously a high tribute by going to them again and again in our distress. Our going, being translated into language, means, We have come again; every other door is shut against us; this kind, hospitable home-door was never thrust in our faces, it was always opened by some kindly hand: the last time we came it was for help, we have come on the same errand again. This may be mean enough on our part, and yet there is an unconscious tribute to the very friends whom we neglected in the time of our strength and prosperity. See how this same question penetrates the whole warp and woof, the whole web of life and thought. Sometimes it is the Church that asks the question. The Church says to some applicants for admission, Why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? You never come in the summer-time you never come in the fair weather: why are ye come to me now when ye are in distress? What has brought you? Which of Gods constables has arrested you and planted you in this prison? Trouble is your gaoler, and he has turned the key of the prison upon you in Church. There are people we use thus meanly, and the Church may be used often on this low ground. We go when we are sad. But are we aware that here also we are paying an unconscious tribute to the Church and to everything that is centralised and glorified by that Divine emblem? The Church wants you to come in the time of distress. The Church is not an upbraiding mother. She may utter a sigh over you as she sees your ragged And destitute condition, but she admits you all the same and tells you to go up higher. If our friends can ask the question of Jephthah, if the Church can put the same inquiry, so in very deed and in the fullest significance can the Bible. Who goes to the Bible in the summer-time? The dear old Bible says to many of us, What, you back again? What has happened now? Some one dead? property lost? not well? What do you want with me to-day? Tell me your case; dont profess you love me and want me for my own sake; tell me what it is you want before you begin, and I will open at the place. It is Gods book, because it is so lovely and so sweet and so large of heart. So far we have taken an advancing line. We began with our friends, we passed through the Church, then we went to the Bible, and now we go to God. This is the Divine inquiry: Why are ye come to Me now when ye are in distress? This is the great hold which God has upon us all. His family would be very small but for the distress of the world. His heaven can hardly hold His household because of this wearying trouble, this eternal want, this gnawing worm of discontent. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord.
Jephthahs vow
I. How the Lord suffereth good men and wise men to snare themselves, and bring needless sorrows and woes on themselves by temerity and rashness (1Sa_25:34; Mat_26:31).
1. The folly of mans heart, which would walk at large, unconfined within the rules of wisdom; this makes men rash even in the things of God, as here.
2. Gods just desertion of good men, for their humiliation; and to give them experience of themselves, and how their own wisdom will make them befool themselves, as David did after his rash numbering of the people, and cleave more close to God and His counsel, when they see their own counsels prove fit for nothing but to cast them down. To be well advised in that we do or speak, avoid temerity and rashness, by which, making more haste than good speed, men do but brew their own sorrow. Consider--
1. That rashness doeth nothing well (Pro_15:22). Without counsel thoughts come to nought, and the hasty man, we say, never wants woe. Herod himself, as wicked as he was, was sorry for his rash oath; and yet how mischievous was it, against the life of John Baptist! A man going in haste easily slideth (Pro_19:2).
2. A note of a man fearing God is to carry his matters with discretion (Psa_112:5). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom.
3. The law rejected a blind sacrifice; the gospel requireth a reasonable (Rom_12:1); and all sacrifices must be seasoned with the salt of discretion.
4. Rashness and temerity lays us bare and naked to the lashes of God, of men, and of our own consciences. Rules of direction to avoid this sin of rashness, attended with so much sorrow.
First, watch carefully against thine own rashness in--
1. Judgment.
2. Affections.
3. Speeches.
4. Actions.
5. Passions.
Secondly, arm thyself with the rules of Christian prudence to avoid this sin, and the sorrow of it; as knowing that it is not enough to be a faithful servant, but he must be wise too.
II. The Lord commonly exalting His servants with some high favour, brings some stinging cross with it, to humble them.
1. The Lord spies in us a lewd nature and disposition, even like that of the spider, which can turn everything into poison. There is in the best a root of pride and vanity which in prosperity and warm sunshine sprouteth and grows wonderfully stiff. Paul himself is in danger to be exalted out of measure by abundance of revelation; and therefore the Lord, as a wise physician, adds a dose of affliction to be an antidote to expel the poison of pride, and with a prick lets out the wind of vainglory.
2. This height of honours, success, etc., easily gaineth our affections and delights, and so draws and steals away our delights in the Lord. We are prone to idolise them, and to give them our hearts, and therefore the Lord is forced to pull our hearts from them, and by some buffetings and cooling cards, tells us in what sliding and slippery places we stand, and therefore had need still keep our watch about us, and not pour out our hearts upon such momentary pleasures.
3. We are as children in our advancements who, having found honey, eat too much. If the Lord did not thus sauce our dainties, how could we avoid the surfeit of them? Alas! how would we dote upon the world if we found nothing but prosperity, who are so set upon it for all the bitterness of it.
4. The Lord spies in us an unthankful disposition, who, when He honours us, and lifts us up that we might lift up His name and glory, we let the honour fall upon ourselves.
III. God doth often turn the greatest delights and earthly pleasures of His servants to their greatest sorrow.
1. From the transitoriness of all outward comforts; here below there is never a gourd to cover our head, but a worm to consume it. And therefore what a man doth chiefly delight in the fruition, he must needs be most vexed in the separation and want of it.
2. From the naughty disposition of our hearts.
(1) Hardness of heart which will not yield without such hard and smart strokes.
(2) That we can turn all kind of comforts, natural and supernatural, to bewitching vanities, and yield them strength enough to allure us and draw us from the sound comfort of them; there is no ordinance, no creature, no gift, no comfort that can escape us.
3. From the jealousy of God who hath made all His creatures, ordinances, gifts, His servants as well as ours, and cannot abide that any of them should have any place but of servants with us; His zeal cannot abide that they should gain our hearts, or souls, or any power of them from Him, and therefore when men go a-whoring after the creatures, and lay the level of their comfort below the Lord Himself, then He shows the fervency of His zeal, either in removing the gift or them from the comfort of it.
IV. All promises to God or man lawful and in our power must be religiously and faithfully performed; of all which, thou openeth thy mouth to the Lord, or before the Lord, thou mayest not go back.
1. I say, all lawful promises, for no promise may be a bond of iniquity, and the performance of such is but tying two sins together, as Herod tied to a wicked oath, murder of John Baptist.
2. All promises in our power, for nothing can tie us to impossibilities, as when the bishop makes the priest vow perpetual continency--a thing out of his power and reach.
3. To God or men.
(1) To God (Num_30:3).
(2) To man; fidelity and veracity are of the weighty points of the law (Mat_23:23).
And of the heathen given up to a reprobate sense it is said, they were truce-breakers (Rom_1:30).
4. They must be performed religiously and faithfully. To a conscionable performance three things are required.
(1) Perform them willingly and cheerfully; for God loves as a cheerful giver, so a cheerful performer.
(2) Fully and wholly, not by halves (Num_30:3). He shall do all that is gone out of His mouth, not taking away a part, as Ananias and Sapphira (Act_5:1-42).
(3) Without delay; every seasonable action is beautiful. Besides the express commandment (Ecc_5:4). (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Different views held as to Jephthahs vow
Among Jewish paraphrasts and commentators, the more ancient are mostly of opinion that Jephthah did actually sacrifice his daughter. They censure the rashness of his vow, but they do not appear to doubt that the sacrifice of the maiden was actually made. Some later Jewish writers, however, of great authority, have contended that Jephthahs daughter was not slain, but devoted to a life of virginity; being shut up in a house which her father built for the purpose, and there visited four days in each year by the maidens of Israel as long as she lived. Among Christian writers, perhaps all during the first ten centuries--certainly the exceptions, if any, were few and far between--believed that the maiden was sacrificed. Later Christian writers have not been so unanimous. Many, perhaps the majority, of those who have treated upon the subject, hold the opinion which, as we have seen, was universal in the early Church. Many others, of equal learning and eminence, have maintained that Jephthahs daughter was not offered by her father as a burnt offering, but that she was permitted to live; among these, there are some who believe with the modern Jews just mentioned, that she was shut up by her father and devoted to a life of seclusion; while others suppose that she was devoted to the Lords service in a life of celibacy, and was numbered during the remainder of her life with the women who assemble at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, performing duties of sacred service in connection with the worship at Shiloh That Jephthah was hasty in opening his lips before God is generally admitted; although this rashness is singularly in contrast with his cautiousness and skill in negotiating and arguing with the Ammonite, and shows how elements the most opposite may exist in the same character. That he deliberately contemplated as possible the sacrifice of a human being is a supposition scarcely to be entertained of one who is spoken of in the New Testament as a man of faith. Yet that human sacrifices were familiar to him cannot be doubted; and it is possible that familiarity with the rites of the Ammonites, on whose borders he dwelt, and with whom human sacrifices, as is now the case in many parts of Africa, were religious rites of daily occurrence, may have blunted his feelings, and have caused him to forget how odious such offerings were in the sight of God. The excitement of the occasion, however, seems to have bewildered him, so that he forgot everything not immediately connected with his forthcoming expedition. His vow was utterly rash. He did not take time to consider, for example, that if an ass or a dog had first met him coming out of his house on his return, to offer it to the Lord would have been an abomination. Had he bestowed that thought upon the matter which reason itself would teach us to be necessary when we open our lips to our Maker, he could not have failed to reflect that it was possible, nay, likely, that his only and beloved child would be the first to greet him on his return. It was natural that he should offer a vow to the Lord; strange that he should have done it with such impulsive rashness . . . The peculiar expression of the sacred text, that her father did with her according to his vow which he vowed, and she knew no man, may lend plausibility to the opinion, that she was devoted to a virgin life. But against this view there lie three objections, which, when taken together, compel us to adopt the opposite view. The first is, that a celibate life formed no part of her fathers vow. The second is, that the great distance at which Jephthah was from Shiloh, where the tabernacle was, and the absence of any allusion in all his history to its existence, render the theory of his daughter being transferred thither improbable. The third is, that the misfortune of his birth would alone have prevented such an arrangement. If the sons of a bastard, according to the law of Moses, could not enter into the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation, it is scarcely probable that Jephthahs daughter could have secured admission among the privileged women who rendered service about the tabernacle. We therefore look upon the maiden as having been sacrificed. Upon the gloom of this painful history, however, an ethereal brightness shines. What can be more beautiful, more wonderful, than this pure and lovely maid, brought up among bandits, and far from the tabernacle of God, thus freely and sweetly giving up herself as a thank-offering for the victories of Israel? And who can fail to see, in the story of the meek and self-sacrificing maid, a marvellous and mysterious adumbration of a better sacrifice of another soul, of an only child, perfectly free and voluntary, and of virgin holiness and heavenly purity, the sacrifice of Christ, who gave His spotless soul to death for our sakes? (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v12 AT every stage of their history the Hebrews were…
THE TERRIBLE VOW
Jdg_11:12-40
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AT every stage of their history the Hebrews were capable of producing men of passionate religiousness. And this appears as a distinction of the group of nations to which they belong. The Arab of the present time has the same quality. He can be excited to a holy war in which thousands perish. With the battle cry of Allah and his Prophet he forgets fear. He presents a different mingling of character from the Saxon, -turbulence and reverence, sometimes apart, then blending magnanimity and a tremendous want of magnanimity; he is fierce and generous, now rising to vivid faith, then breaking into earthly passion. We have seen the type in Deborah. David is the same and Elijah; and Jephthah is the Gileadite, the border Arab. In each of these there is quick leaping at life and beneath hot impulse a strain of brooding thought with moments of intense inward trouble. As we follow the history we must remember the kind of man it presents to us. There is humanity as it is in every race, daring in effort, tender in affection, struggling with ignorance yet thoughtful of God and duty, triumphing here, defeated there. And there is the Syrian with the heat of the sun in his blood and the shadow of Moloch on his heart, a son of the. rude hills and of barbaric times, yet with a dignity, a sense of justice, a keen upward look, the Israelite never lost in the outlaw.
So soon as Jephthah begins to act for his people, marks of a strong character are seen. He is no ordinary leader, not the mere fighter the elders of Gilead may have taken him to be. His first act is to send messengers to the king of Ammon saying, What hast thou to do with me that thou art come to fight against my land? He is a chief who desires to avert bloodshed-a new figure in the history.
Natural in those times was the appeal to arms, so natural, so customary that we must not lightly pass this trait in the character of the Gileadite judge. If we compare his policy with that of Gideon or Barak we see of course that he had different circumstances to deal with. Between Jordan and the Mediterranean the Israelites required the whole of the land in order to establish a free nationality. There was no room for Canaanite or Midianite rule side by side with their own. The dominance of Israel had to be complete and undisturbed. Hence there was no alternative to war when Jabin or Zebah and Zalmunna attacked the tribes. Might had to be invoked on behalf of right. On the other side Jordan the position was different. Away towards the desert behind the mountains of Bashan the Ammonites might find pasture for their flocks, and Moab had its territory on the slopes of the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. It was not necessary to crush Ammon in order to give Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben space enough and to spare. Yet there was a rare quality of judgment shown by the man who, although called to lead in war, began with negotiation and aimed at a peaceful settlement. No doubt there was danger that the Ammonites might unite with Midian or Moab against Israel. But Jephthah hazards such a coalition. He knows the bitterness kindled by strife. He desires that Ammon, a kindred people, shall be won over to friendliness with Israel, henceforth to be an ally instead of a foe.
Now in one aspect this may appear an error in policy, and the Hebrew chief will seem especially to blame when he makes the admission that the Ammonites hold their land from Chemosh their god. Jephthah has no sense of Israels mission to the world, no wish to convert Ammon to a higher faith, nor does Jehovah appear to him as sole King, sole object of human worship. Yet, on the other hand, if the Hebrews were to fight idolatry everywhere it is plain their swords would never have been sheathed. Phoenicia was close beside; Aram was not far away; northward the Hittites maintained their elaborate ritual. A line had to be drawn somewhere and, on the whole, we cannot but regard Jephthah as an enlightened and humane chief who wished to stir against his people and his God no hostility that could possibly be avoided. Why should not Israel conquer Ammon by justice and magnanimity, by showing the higher principles which the true religion taught? He began at all events by endeavouring to stay the quarrel, and the attempt was wise.
The king of Ammon refused Jephthahs offer to negotiate. He claimed the land bounded by the Arnon, the Jabbok, and Jordan as his own and demanded that it should be peaceably given up to him. In reply Jephthah denied the claim. It was the Amorites, he said, who originally held that part of Syria. Sihon who was defeated in the time of Moses was not an Ammonite king, but chief of the Amorites. Israel had by conquest obtained the district in dispute, and Ammon must give place.
The full account given of these messages sent by Jephthah shows a strong desire on the part of the narrator to vindicate Israel from any charge of unnecessary warfare. And it is very important that this should be understood, for the inspiration of the historian is involved. We know of nations that in sheer lust of conquest have attacked tribes whose land they did not need, and we have read histories in which wars unprovoked and cruel have been glorified. In after times the Hebrew kings brought trouble and disaster on themselves by their ambition. It would have been well if David and Solomon had followed a policy like Jephthahs rather than attempted to rival Assyria and Egypt. We see an error rather than a cause of boasting when David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus: strife was thereby provoked which issued in many a sanguinary war. The Hebrews should never have earned the character of an aggressive and ambitious people that required to be kept in check by the kingdoms around. To this nation, a worldly nation on the whole, was committed a spiritual inheritance, a spiritual task. Is it asked why, being worldly, the Hebrews ought to have fulfilled a spiritual calling? The answer is that their best men understood and declared the Divine will, and they should have listened to their best men. Their fatal mistake was, as Christ showed, to deride their prophets, to crush and kill the messengers of God. And many other nations likewise have missed their true vocation, being deluded by dreams of vast empire and earthly glory. To combat idolatry was indeed the business of Israel and especially to drive back the heathenism that would have overwhelmed its faith: and often this had to be done with an earthly sword because liberty no less than faith was at stake. But a policy of aggression was never the duty of this people.
The temperate messages of the Hebrew chief to the king of Ammon proved to be of no avail: war alone was to settle the rival claims. And this once clear Jephthah lost no time in preparing for battle. As one who felt that without God no man can do anything, he sought assurance of divine aid; and we have now to consider the vow which he made, ever interesting on account of the moral problem it involves and the very pathetic circumstances which accompanied its fulfilment.
The terms of the solemn engagement under which Jephthah came were these:-"If Thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into mine hand, then it shall be that whatsoever" (Septuagint and Vulgate, "whosoever") "cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall be the Lords, and I will offer it (otherwise, him) for a burnt offering." And here two questions arise; the first, what he could have meant by the promise; the second, whether we can justify him in making it. As to the first, the explicit designation to God of whatever came forth of the doors of his house points unmistakably to a human life as the devoted thing. It would have been idle in an emergency like that in which Jephthah found himself, with a hazardous conflict impending that was to decide the fate of the eastern tribes at least, to anticipate the appearance of an animal, -bullock, goat, or sheep, -and promise that in sacrifice. The form of words used in the vow cannot be held to refer to an animal. The chief is thinking of some one who will express joy at his success and greet him as a victor. In the fulness of his heart he leaps to a wild savage mark of devotion. It is a crisis alike for him and for the people and what can he do to secure the favour and help of Jehovah? Too ready from his acquaintance with heathen sacrifices and ideas to believe that the God of Israel will be pleased with the kind of offerings by which the gods of Sidon and Aram were honoured, feeling himself as the chief of the Hebrews bound to make some great and unusual sacrifice, he does not promise that the captives taken in war shall be devoted to Jehovah, but some one of his own people is to be the victim. The dedication shall be all the more impressive that the life given up is one of which he himself shall feel the loss. A conqueror returning from war would, in ordinary circumstances, have loaded with gifts the first member of his household who came forth to welcome him. Jephthah vows to give that very person to God. The insufficient religious intelligence of the man, whose life had been far removed from elevating influences, this once perceived-and we cannot escape from the facts of the case-the vow is parallel to others of which ancient history tells. Jephthah expects some servant, some favourite slave to be the first. There is a touch of barbaric grandeur and at the same time of Roman sternness in his vow. As a chief he has the lives of all his household entirely at his disposal. To sacrifice one will be hard, for he is a humane man; but he expects that the offering will be all the more acceptable to the Most High. Such are the ideas moral and religious from which his vow springs.
Now we should like to find more knowledge and a higher vision in a leader of Israel. We would fain escape from the conclusion that a Hebrew could be so ignorant of the divine character as Jephthah appears; and moved by such feelings many have taken a very different view of the matter. The Gileadite has, for example, been represented as fully aware of the Mosaic regulations concerning sacrifice and the method for redeeming the life of a firstborn child; that is to say, he is supposed to have made his vow under cover of the Levitical provision by which in case his daughter should first meet him he would escape the necessity of sacrificing her. The rule in question could not, however, be stretched to a case like this. But, supposing it could, is it likely that a man whose whole soul had gone out in a vow of life and death to God would reserve such a door of escape? In that case the story would lose its terror indeed, but also its power: human history would be the poorer by one of the great tragic experiences, wild and supernatural, that show man struggling with thoughts above himself.
What did the Gileadite know? What ought he to have known? We see in his vow a fatalistic strain; he leaves it to chance or fate to determine who shall meet him. There is also an assumption of the right to take into his own lands the disposal of a human life; and this, though most confidently claimed, was entirely a factitious right. It is one which mankind has ceased to allow. Further, the purpose of offering a human being in sacrifice is unspeakably horrible to us. But how differently these things must have appeared in the dim light which alone guided this man of lawless life in his attempt to make sure of God and honour Him! We have but to consider things that are done at the present day in the name of religion, the lifelong "devotion" of young women in a nunnery, for example, and all the ceremonies which accompany that outrage on the divine order to see that centuries of Christianity have not yet put an end to practices which under colour of piety are barbaric and revolting. In the modern case a nun secluded from the world, dead to the world, is considered to be an offering to God. The old conception of sacrifice was that the life must pass out of the world by way of death in order to become Gods. Or again, when the priest describing the devotion of his body says: "The essential, the sacerdotal purpose to which it should be used is to die. Such death must be begun in chastity, continued in mortification, consummated in that actual death which is the priests final oblation, his last sacrifice," -the same superstition appears in a refined and mystical form.
His vow made, the chief went forth to battle, leaving in his home one child only, a daughter beautiful, high spirited, the joy of her fathers heart. She was a true Hebrew girl and all her thought was that he, her sire, should deliver Israel. For this she longed and prayed. And it was so. The enthusiasm of Jephthahs devotion to God was caught by his troops and bore them on irresistibly. Marching from Mizpah in the land of Bashan they crossed Manasseh, and south from Mizpeh of Gilead, which was not far from the Jabbok, they found the Ammonites encamped. The first battle practically decided the campaign. From Aroer to Minnith, from the Jabbok to the springs of Arnon, the course of flight and bloodshed extended, until the invaders were swept from the territory of the tribes. Then came the triumphant return.
We imagine the chief as he approached his home among the hills of Gilead, his eagerness and exultation mingled with some vague alarm. The vow he has made cannot but weigh upon his mind now that the performance of it comes so near. He has had time to think what it implies. When he uttered the words that involved a life the issue of war appeared doubtful. Perhaps the campaign would be long and indecisive. He might have returned not altogether discredited, yet not triumphant. But he has succeeded beyond his expectation. There can be no doubt that the offering is due to Jehovah. Who then shall appear? The secret of his vow is hid in his own breast. To no man has he revealed his solemn promise; nor has he dared in any way to interfere with the course of events. As he passes up the valley with his attendants there is a stir in his rude castle. The tidings of his coming have preceded him and she, that dear girl who is the very apple of his eye, his daughter, his only child, having, already rehearsed her part, goes forth eagerly to welcome him. She is clad in her gayest dress. Her eyes are bright with the keenest excitement. The timbrel her father once gave her, on which she has often played to delight him, is tuned to a chant of triumph. She dances as she passes from the gate. Her father, her father, chief, and victor!
And he? A sudden horror checks his heart. He stands arrested, cold as stone, with eyes of strange dark trouble fixed upon the gay young figure that welcomes him to home and rest and fame. She flies to his arms, but they do not open to her. She looks at him, for he has never repulsed her-and why now? He puts forth his hands as if to thrust away a dreadful sight, and what does she hear? Amid the sobs of a strong mans agony, "Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me." To startled ears the truth is slowly told. She is vowed to the Lord in sacrifice. He cannot go back. Jehovah who gave the victory now claims the fulfilment of the oath.
We are dealing with the facts of life. For a time let us put aside the reflections that are so easy to make about rash vows and the iniquity of keeping them. Before this anguish of the loving heart, this awful issue of a sincere but superstitious devotion we stand in reverence. It is one of the supreme hours of humanity. Will the father not seek relief from his obligation? Will the daughter not rebel? Surely a sacrifice so awful will not be completed. Yet we remember Abraham and Isaac journeying together to Moriah, and how with the fathers resignation of his great hope there must have gone the willingness of the son to face death if that last proof of piety and faith is required. We look at the father and daughter of a later date and find the same spirit of submission to what is regarded as the will of God. Is the thing horrible-too horrible to be dwelt upon? Are we inclined to say,
"Heaven heads the count of crimes
With that wild oath? She renders answer high,
Not so; nor once alone, a thousand times
I would be born and die."
It has been affirmed that "Jephthahs rash act, springing from a culpable ignorance of the character of God, directed by heathen superstition and cruelty poured an ingredient of extreme bitterness into his cup of joy and poisoned his whole life." Suffering indeed there must have been for both the actors in that pitiful tragedy of devotion and ignorance, who knew not the God to Whom they offered the sacrifice. But it is one of the marks of rude erring man that he does take upon himself such burdens of pain in the service of the invisible Lord. A shallow scepticism entirely misreads the strange dark deeds often done for religion; yet one who has uttered many a foolish thing in the way of "explaining" piety can at last confess that the renouncing mortifying spirit is, with all its errors, one of mans noble and distinguishing qualities. To Jephthah, as to his heroic daughter, religion was another thing than it is to many, just because of their extraordinary renunciation. Very ignorant they were surely, but they were not so ignorant as those who make no great offering to God, who would not resign a single pleasure, nor deprive a son or daughter of a single comfort or delight, for the sake of religion and the higher life. To what purpose is this waste? said the disciples, when the pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, was poured on the head of Jesus and the house was filled with the odour. To many now it seems waste to expend thought, time, or money upon a sacred cause, much more to hazard or to give life itself. We see the evils of enthusiastic self-devotion to the work of God very clearly; its power we do not feel. We are saving life so diligently, many of us, that we may well fear to lose it irremediably. There is no strain and therefore no strength, no joy. A weary pessimism dogs our unfaith.
To Jephthah and his daughter the vow was sacred, irrevocable. The deliverance of Israel by so signal and complete a victory left no alternative. It would have been well if they had known God differently; yet better this darkly impressive issue which went to the making of Hebrew faith and strength than easy unfruitful evasion of duty. We are shocked by the expenditure of fine feeling and heroism in upholding a false idea of God and obligation to Him; but are we outraged and distressed by the constant effort to escape from God which characterises our age? And have we for our own part come yet to the right idea of self and its relations? Our century, beclouded on many points, is nowhere less informed than in matters of self-sacrifice; Christs doctrine is still uncomprehended. Jephthah was wrong, for God did not need to be bribed to support a man who was bent on doing his duty. And many fail now to perceive that personal development and service of God are in the same line. Life is made for generosity, not mortification; for giving in glad ministry, not for giving up in hideous sacrifice. It is to be devoted to God by the free and holy use of body, mind, and soul in the daily tasks which Providence appoints.
The wailing of Jephthahs daughter rings in our ears, bearing with it the anguish of many a soul tormented in the name of that which is most sacred, tormented by mistakes concerning God, the awful theory that He is pleased with human suffering. The relics of that hideous Moloch worship which polluted Jephthahs faith, not even yet purged away by the Spirit of Christ, continue and make religion an anxiety and life a kind of torture. I do not speak of that devotion of thought and time, eloquence and talent to some worthless cause which here and there amazes the student of history and human life, the passionate ardour, for example, with which Flora Macdonald gave herself up to the service of a Stuart. But religion is made to demand sacrifices compared to which the offering of Jephthahs daughter was easy. The imagination of women especially, fired by false representations of the death of Christ in which there was a clear divine assertion of self, while it is made to appear as complete suppression of self, bears many on in a hopeless and essentially immoral endeavour. Has God given us minds, feelings, right ambitions that we may crush them? Does He purify our desires and aspirations by the fire of his own Spirit and still require us to crush them? Are we to find our end in being nothing, absolutely nothing, devoid of will, of purpose, of personality? Is this what Christianity demands? Then our religion is but refined suicide, and the God who desires us to annihilate ourselves is but the Supreme Being of the Buddhists, if those may be said to have a god who regard the suppression of individuality as salvation.
Christ was made a sacrifice for us. Yes: He sacrificed everything except His own eternal life and power; He sacrificed ease and favour and immediate success for the manifestation of God. So He achieved the fulness of personal might and royalty. And every sacrifice His religion calls us to make is designed to secure that enlargement and fulness of spiritual individuality in the exercise of which we shall truly serve God and our fellows. Does God require sacrifice? Yes, unquestionably-the sacrifice which every reasonable being must make in order that the mind, the soul may be strong and free, sacrifice of the lower for the higher, sacrifice of pleasure for truth, of comfort for duty, of the life that is earthly and temporal for the life that is heavenly and eternal. And the distinction of Christianity is that it makes this sacrifice supremely reasonable because it reveals the higher life, the heavenly hope, the eternal rewards for which the sacrifice is to be made; that it enables us in making it to feel ourselves united to Christ in a divine work which is to issue in the redemption of mankind.
There are not a few popularly accepted guides in religion who fatally misconceive the doctrine of sacrifice. They take man-made conditions for Divine opportunities and calls. Their arguments come home not to the selfish and overbearing, but to the unselfish and long-suffering members of society, and too often they are more anxious to praise renunciation-any kind of it, for any purpose, so it involve acute feeling-than to magnify truth and insist on righteousness. It is women chiefly these arguments affect, and the neglect of pure truth and justice with which women are charged is in no small degree the result of false moral and religious teaching. They are told that it is good to renounce and suffer even when at every step advantage is taken of their submission and untruth triumphs over generosity. They are urged to school themselves to humiliation and loss not because God appoints these but because human selfishness imposes them. The one clear and damning objection to the false doctrine of self-suppression is here: it makes sin. Those who yield where they should protest, who submit where they should argue and reprove, make a path for selfishness and injustice and increase evil instead of lessening it. They persuade themselves that they are bearing the cross after Christ; but what in effect are they doing? The missionary amongst ignorant heathen has to bear to the uttermost as Christ bore. But to give so-called Christians a power of oppression and exaction is to turn the principles of religion upside down and hasten the doom of those for whom the sacrifice is made. When we meddle with truth and righteousness even in the name of piety we simply commit sacrilege, we range ourselves with the wrong and unreal; there is no foundation under our faith and no moral result of our endurance and self-denial. We are selling Christ, not following Him.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 30 CRITICAL NOTES.— Jdg_11:1. The Gileadite.] Many regard this as…
CHOICE OF A LEADER; AND SLAUGHTER OF THE ENEMY
Jdg_11:1-33.
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CRITICAL NOTES.— Jdg_11:1. The Gileadite.] Many regard this as not a definite patronymic, but indicating that he belonged to the clan of the Gileadites. The phrase, Gilead begat Jephthah, they suppose to mean that the son of Machir was his ancestor, and add, that his posterity is not more distinctly given because his birth was illegitimate. But this is to put a strain on the passage, for we are told that Jephthah’s father had other sons (Jdg_11:2). Gilead here spoken of then, must have been a descendant of the son of Machir, wearing the same name, for the same names often recurred in Jewish families (see the genealogies in 1 Chronicles 2, 4.) The ancestor of the family is referred to in Num_26:29. The designation, Gileadite, by itself, may be regarded as a general patronymic, similar to “Elon the Zebulonite” (ch. Jdg_12:11-12), signifying that he belonged to the family line of the Gileadites, and that one of the line of the same name with the ancestor, Gilead, was his father. It also implies, that Gilead was the country of his birth.
A mighty man of valour] comp. Jos_1:14; 2Ki_5:1; also ch. Jdg_6:12, implying great physical strength, boldness and courage. “A man able to endure hardness as a good soldier,” “a man that had often done great exploits on the field, and that had looked death in the face on great adventures in the field”—(Trapp). This feature is mentioned, as it gave him distinction in such an age, an age of wars and fightings. The son of an harlot.] The sacred penman, with ever impartiality, gives the actual outlines of a man’s history, whether for honour or dishonour.
Jdg_11:2. Thrust out Jephthah.] From the circumstance of his birth, he was not entitled to share in the paternal inheritance. Not even the children of the secondary wife were so entitled (Gen_21:10; Gen_25:6). It is probable, that Jephthah from his bold and enterprising spirit, bade fair to take the lead in the general family circle, and so jealousy was awakened.
Jdg_11:3. Dwelt in the land of Tob.] 2Sa_10:6. Probably some part of Syria, a part on the borders of Gilead, to the north, or north-east. He flees thither as to an asylum, and by constraint, טוֹכ good, may apply to the land, and signify that the land was fertile. Such a phrase as eretz tob, a good land, is used in Exo_3:8. Yet some suppose it may have been owned by one who was called Tob, on account of his goodness, as Aristides was surnamed “the Just,” and Phocion was called “the Good.” Of Probus, the Emperor, it was said if he had not already had Probus (the honest) for his name, he would certainly have had it given him for a surname, for he was honest all over. (Trapp).
Were gathered unto him vain men.] Rather, they gathered themselves unto him. They were probably attracted to him, partly because he belonged to a family of distinction, but still more by his sterling qualities as a leader of men. Courage, enterprise, and decision of character, are sure to make a following. רָקִים vain men. Men of no moral restraint (see on ch. Jdg_9:4), of loose, perhaps infamous character; for it corresponds with the term “Raca” in Matthew 5, which is a term of great reproach. In fact, Jephthah now became an adventurer, not of choice, but through force of circumstances; and “adversity makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows.” These were not chosen associates of Jephthah, as was the case with Abimelech (ch. Jdg_9:4), but they had this in common, that they were driven out from the pale of constituted society, and were compelled to lead the life of adventurers. Jephthah, however, could have had no sympathy with anything that was ungodly, or dissolute in character.
They went out with him,] i.e. in any of his adventures. These were necessary as a means of subsistence. Nothing would be more to the taste of such a class of men than a system of freebooting, without regard to moral principle. But to a man of conscience, like Jephthah, such considerations as these would regulate his conduct: The heathen all round were the enemies of the God of Israel, and of the people of Israel; they were long ago marked out for destruction; most of them had already oppressed Israel for years without making compensation; and at the present moment (during the 18 years mentioned), the Ammonites were doing their very utmost to tread down the tribes throughout Gilead to the east of Jordan, his own people. Was he not, therefore, justified in attacking the enemies of his people, and of his God, the same as he would be in fighting a battle with an enemy? Was he not at liberty to despoil those who were already doomed to destruction by Jehovah, at the hand of Israel? A parallel case we have in the history of David (1Sa_22:2). David made raids from time to time into the countries of the Lord’s enemies (1Sa_27:8-10; 1 Samuel 30; also 1Sa_23:1-5). Jephthah was very successful in these excursions, and so gained a great name as a warrior.
Jdg_11:4. In process of time.] After several years, or as the years rolled on. The meaning seems to be, when a considerable period had elapsed after Jephthah’s expulsion, and many things had come and gone. When he was expelled, it was the period of the people’s sin and impenitence, and not at all unlikely, one of the special items of dislike to him on the part of his brethren, was his staunch loyalty to the God of Israel, while they at that time were idolaters. That he was a true fearer of Jehovah is manifest from the whole account, and he was not likely to learn that lesson in Aram while living among heathen strangers. He must have learned it before leaving his father’s house and kindred, for in the darkest nights of Israel’s history, there were always some glimmerings of the true light left unextinguished. Jephthah’s brethren, being now penitent, and having returned to the worship of Israel’s God, would feel that his piety, which they formerly disliked, was one of the best qualifications for his becoming their leader in a battle, which was to be won through the aid of Israel’s God.
Made war against Israel.] The historian now returns from his digression to the point stated in ch. Jdg_10:17. The Ammonites had for years made many desultory and desolating excursion into the land of Israel, but now they were collecting their forces for a general subjugation of the country. It was about this period, say some, that the Greeks made war against Troy, and after ten years took it.—Trapp.
Jdg_11:6. Come and be our captain.] Because of his fame as a warrior, and also because of his loyalty to Israel’s God. קָצִין a leader in war (Jos_10:24), and is distinguished in Jdg_11:11 from רא̇שׁ, a chief in peace and war. The former word seems to refer to a temporary appointment, the latter to a permanent office; hence its importance in Jdg_11:9, where רא̇שׁ is used. And the force of the statement is, “If I fight with Ammon as your temporary captain for the battle, and the Lord deliver them into my hand, then I will become your permanent head or judge, or shall I become so?” To this they agreed.
Jdg_11:7. Did ye not hate me and expel me, etc.?] We see nothing very harsh or resentful in these words as some do. A great injury had been done to him in forcing him into exile, and compelling him to lead the life of a guerilla chief for these eighteen years, and the language now used is only what might be expected from a man of proper self-respect. His brethren really did the wrong, but the elders, or leading men in Gilead of that day, seemed to have concurred in the act, or at least could have prevented it.
Jdg_11:8. Therefore we turn to thee now, etc.] We now come to make amends, and we not only ask thee to fight with us against the children of Ammon, but to be head or ruler over all Gilead.
Jdg_11:9. And the Lord deliver them before me.] He speaks of God under his covenant name, Jehovah—not Elohim, which last refers equally to all the inhabitants of the world, but the former relates to the special covenant he had made with Israel as a redeemed people. He also looks for victory, not as coming through his own prowess or skill as a general, but as a blessing coming from Jehovah.
Shall I be your head?] Shall I become your permanent ruler or head (as explained in Jdg_11:6)? Or, it will be on condition that I become your permanent head.
Jdg_11:10. The Lord be witness, etc.] The enemy was at the gate, and there was no time for hesitation. They were glad to get the help of a man like Jephthah, on any terms. They are even willing to make the agreement with the solemnity of an oath, for “an oath for confirmation is to men an end of all strife.”
Jdg_11:11. Uttered all his words before the Lord.] He does everything under Jehovah’s immediate inspection and sanction. He generously forgets all former grievances, and forgives as he hoped to be forgiven.
In Mizpeh.] This place from Jacob’s time had always more or less of a sacred character. There was set up the heap of stones as a witness before God, that neither Laban nor he should pass it to do the other harm (Gen_31:49-53). It, afterwards, became the capital of Gilead. It was also one of the 48 Levitical cities given to that sacred tribe, among all the other tribes (Jos_21:38), and it was one of the six cities of refuge (Jos_20:8). In these verses it is spoken of as Ramoth-in-Gilead. The special presence of God was supposed to be with the tabernacle, with the ark, or with the priest officiating clothed with the ephod. This latter may have been the case here.
Jdg_11:12. What hast thou to do with me?] He now speaks in name of the nation, having been chosen their captain. His first step is to try to settle the dispute peacefully, according to the law of his God (Deu_20:10). Even the Romans held that all things ought to be tried first before war.
Jdg_11:13. Israel took away my land, &c.] This was a mere pretext for a quarrel. A district of fertile land lying between Arnon on the south, and Jabbok on the north, enclosed by Jordan on the west, and the wilderness on the east, did at one time belong to the Moabites, or Ammonites, or both; for being both sons of Lot and brethren, they are often spoken of as if they were but one nation (see Num_21:26-30). But that territory was taken from them by Sihon, king of the Amorites, so that when Israel, at their entrance into Canaan, passed along, they found it to be a part of the kingdom of Sihon, and as they conquered Sihon in turn, it naturally fell into their hands; yet, in no sense, as a portion of Moab or Ammon, but as a division of the kingdom of Sihon (Jdg_5:22; Deu_3:16; Jos_13:25). “The Arnon (rushing stream) empties itself into the Dead Sea, mid-way down on the east side (Num_21:13). The Jabbok (pourer) rises in the mountains of Gilead, and empties itself into the Jordan, near the city of Adam” (Jos_3:16) (Lias).
Jdg_11:14. Sent messengers again.] He was a man of robust intellect, as well as robust body, and saw through the flimsiness of the pretext in a moment.
Jdg_11:15. Thus saith Jephthah.] He recapitulates all the facts bearing on the case, and shows how fully he was acquainted with all God’s past dealings towards his covenant people. Like Moses in the desert, or like David in the cave, he must have occupied much of his time in that foreign land, in meditating on the mighty acts of the Lord towards His chosen people.
Jdg_11:17. Sent messengers to the King of Edom … and to the King of Moab, etc.] These peoples were descendants of Esau and of Lot, and the Israelites were forbidden to attack any of them (Deu_2:5; Deu_2:9; Deu_2:19; 2Ch_20:10). So “Israel abode in Kadesh,” when these kings refused to grant them liberty to pass through. They took no step to force a passage, though they were well able to do so.
Jdg_11:18. Compassed the land of Edom and of Moab.] Took a long and fatiguing journey round these territories, that they might not come within the borders of Moab nor yet of Edom (Num_21:4; Num_21:11; Num_21:13; Num_22:36; Deu_2:1-12).
Jdg_11:19-20. Let us pass through thy land unto my place, etc.] Even Sihon was not attacked by Israel, but the Amorite king himself brought on the war which took place (Num_21:21-25; Deu_2:26-34).
Jdg_11:22. They possessed all the coasts of the Amorites from Arnon to Jabbok, and from the wilderness to Jordan.] This was the territory in dispute, and Jephthah shows how it came into Israel’s possession. It was not taken by Israel from Moab, for at that time Moab had it not. Israel too showed a jealous care not to touch anything that belonged to Moab, being forbidden by Jehovah to do so. What took place before that, between the Amorites and Moab, Israel had nothing to do with—it was a piece of past history. But Israel took it from a king by whom they were attacked in war.
Jdg_11:23. The Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites, etc.] (Deu_2:32-37). The blessed and only Potentate did so. There could be no higher title to any possession than this. “The God that made the world and all things therein … determines for men the bounds of their habitation” (Act_17:24; Act_17:26; Dan_4:25). At the first, “the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance” (Deu_32:8). The Lord of the whole earth (Psa_24:1) has a right to give any part of it to whomsoever he pleaseth. The complaint now made was really a complaint against the doing of the God of Israel.
Jdg_11:24. That which Chemosh thy god giveth thee.] He appeals to their own principles of action. They were accustomed to hold that what their god gave them they had the fullest right to possess, for no law was higher with them than the decision of their god. Had not Israel then the same high title to possess that which their God gave them? This was unanswerable reasoning (Deu_9:3; Deu_9:5; Deu_18:12; Jos_3:10). Ammon and Moab got possession of the territory they then had, by forcibly driving out its previous possessors (Deu_2:10-22).
Jdg_11:25. Art thou anything better than Balak, etc.?] Jephthah knew the whole history well and could reason upon it equally well. He means, art thou better than the King of Moab of that day? Yet he never disputed Israel’s title to the possession of that which they took from Sihon, when they had conquered him in battle. And if Moab’s king at the time did not find fault, why raise a dispute now after the lapse of 300 years? There was now a prescriptive right. “A title so long unquestioned, was to be presumed to be unquestionable”—(Bush). Balak did indeed hire Baalam to curse Israel, but not because he wished thereby to recover the lost portion of land, but his object was to save his crown itself and the kingdom which he possessed. Ammon and Moab went together in this nefarious attempt (Deu_23:4). They were brethren. “Moab was the more civilised and agricultural, Ammon the more fierce, Bedouin-like and marauding half of Lot’s descendants (Isaiah 15, 16; Jeremiah 48; comp. with 1Sa_11:2; Amo_1:13; 2Sa_10:1-5; 2Sa_12:31)”—(Fausset).
Jdg_11:27. Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, &c.] I have the land by right of conquest, the same as that by which you own your own territory. I have it by the gift of our God, who is the Sovereign Proprietor of heaven and earth. And I have it by the right of long unquestioned possession.
The Lord be judge, etc.] He leaves the matter in the hands of the Sovereign “Judge of all the earth.” It is clear that throughout this chapter, Jephthah “acknowledged the Lord in all his ways,” believing that “He would direct his steps.”
Jdg_11:28. Hearkened not to the words of Jephthah.] Though the reasoning was most conclusive. His purpose to fight was already fixed. It was a case of the wolf and the lamb. God hardened his heart, for He purposed to destroy him for lifting his hand against the people of God.
Jdg_11:29. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.] Already he had the spirit of grace, now he got the spirit of power (see on ch. Jdg_3:10; Jdg_6:34). The effect was to raise him above his natural level in courage, strength, boldness, and wisdom. This was the crowning proof that Jehovah had chosen Jephthah, and not the elders of Israel merely, to be the leader in this important crisis. It was the same as if a horn of oil had been poured on his head. It was also an indication of the fact, that victory was to come, not by natural energy or skill, “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord.”
Passed over Gilead and Manasseh.] To collect an army, in Reuben, Gad, and the tribe of Manasseh east. Mizpeh of Gilead is specially mentioned as being the rendezvous for all public assemblies of the people, on the east side of Jordan. The reasons are given above under Jdg_5:11. It is called Mizpeh of Gilead, to distinguish it from Mizpeh of Judah, a town about 20 miles to the south of Jerusalem (1Sa_7:5-7; Jos_15:21; Jos_15:38), but some place it in Benjamin (Jos_18:26).
Jdg_11:32. The Lord delivered them into his hands.] No account is given of the particular means employed. But when God’s hand is specially engaged, it is easy with him to set 1000 springs in operation, in the most natural way, to bring out victory. Whatever was fitted to hamper, to enfeeble, to disconcert, or strike with panic the forces of the enemy, was set agoing. Whatever was needful to encourage, to embolden, and to give fresh strength to His own people, was furnished by the God of battles. A very great slaughter followed, and twenty cities fell into the bands of the victors.
Jdg_11:33. The children of Ammon were subdued, etc.] A single verse is reckoned sufficient to tell the great decision, whether the dark cloud which had hung over Israel for many years was to continue, and grow darker still, or whether light, liberty, and joy were again to visit the homes of the children of the covenant. But nearly two chapters are taken up with getting the people’s sins disposed of, and the arguments of the case set forth.
The word וַיִכָּנעוּ signifies greatly brought down, or laid very low. Their pride was humbled, and their strength was utterly broken; so it usually fared with those who dared to attack the people of the living God. They were not merely defeated, but the defeat became a rout, and indeed ruin. None of those who oppressed Israel, after God’s controversy with His people was closed, could lift up their heads a second time. Here the word might be translated Canaanised (Bush).
HOMILETIC REMARKS
Jdg_11:1-33
THE EXILE LEADER, AND A GREAT TRIUMPH
I. Every man has his starting point in life fixed by God.
All do not enter on the race of life with the same advantages. Some are born king’s sons, and have the prestige of royalty at every step they take. Others are the children of parents of high rank and great wealth, to whom many doors of ease and enjoyment, as well as an honourable position in life, are thrown open. But a far larger number are born to tread more among thorns than flowers, and have to climb hard, ere they reach a respectable elevation in society. Others still are born under the shadow of reproach, and have from the first to fight their way through a strong prejudice, which it may take many years to dispel. Thus it was with Jephthah, who in early life was banned even from the society of his own brethren, because of the illegitimacy of his birth, and had at length to flee into a land of strangers. There was no blame on his part; but in God’s Providence, this cloud came over him through the sin of his parents.
Similar are the disadvantages, with which many have to contend in fighting the battle of life. How many are born with sickly constitutions, so that many things are a burden or a labour to them, which are a light exercise to others. How many are blind, or have weak eyesight from the first, or are maimed, or deformed. How many have dissolute parents, have uncomfortable homes, are clothed in rags, and see only spectacles of misery and squalor from day to day. How many have to toil hard for the bare necessaries of life, want the means of a liberal education, and have no influential friends to take them by the hand in climbing up the ladder.
In one aspect of the case, this fixing of a man’s starting point is the arrangement of God, for it is He who determines every man’s lot. Yet it is also true that “when a man’s ways please the Lord” (whatever his station in life) He not only gives him promotion, but “maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Pro_16:7), Psa_75:6-7.
II. Much of a man’s future in life depends on himself.
This must be taken in connection with the former remark. Jonathan was a king’s son, but he had a wicked father, and he knew from his youth that the wicked father’s son would not inherit the throne of Israel. Yet notwithstanding this blight in his early hopes, he did not quarrel with the position which God had given him, but nobly turned round and said to David, “Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee.” That honour denied him, he sought another distinction, that of being a man of strong faith in his God. Such deeds did he perform through that faith, that his name illumines some of the brightest chapters of the Book of God, and stands higher through all time than if he had worn a crown.
Had Jephthah sat down sullenly as an ill-fated man, complained, as an ungodly man would have done, that the fates were against him, or that God had taken a grudge against him, and begun to cherish a gloomy, perhaps a reckless and misanthropic spirit, he would never have risen in the scale in after life. Nor would Joseph have done so, if he had given way to hard thoughts of God, when cast into the pit, or sold for a slave, falsely accused, and immured within the walls of an Egyptian prison. Nor would David have risen to eminence, if, when chased like a roe among the mountains, he had lost all hope in God, and become demoralised. Every man is bound to make the most of his position, and, like the woman of Zarephath, to gather the two sticks that are left to prepare the last meal, in the faith that the covenant God will not let the barrel of meal waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, till the day that He shall send rain on the earth (1Ki_17:12-16).
III. Disaffection in a family circle brings chastisement sooner or later.
If it were undutifulness to parents, the sentence according to the Mosaic law was most severe. It was the first commandment in the Second Table of the Law, to honour parents, and often breaches of that commandment were visited with death (Exo_21:13; Exo_21:17; Deu_21:18-21), or some severe penalty (Pro_30:17; 1Ti_1:9; Rom_1:30; Rom_1:32); or if disaffection break out among brethren, we have a strong illustration of the Divine scourge coming down in after years, in the case of Joseph’s brethren (comp. Genesis 37 with ch. Gen_42:21-22). To what a humiliation had Jephthah’s brethren to submit, when, in after years, they had to journey into a far country to seek out him whom they had driven out, and implore him to come to their rescue in the day of their extremity! What earnest charges are given against brethren falling out among one another (Gen_45:24; Mat_20:24-28; 2Co_12:20-21; Jas_3:16; Jas_4:1, etc.)
IV. Adversity in youth is often a blessing (Lam_3:27-33).
The man whom God sent into Egypt to provide the staff of bread for His people in days of famine, “was sold for a slave (while yet a youth), his feet were hurt with fetters, and he was laid in irons,” etc. (Psa_105:17-22). Joseph, the indulged child, could never have acquired the capacity of dealing with men with firmness, sagacity, and good judgment, as ruler over all the land of Egypt, had he not been taken by God’s own far-seeing hand, and set to learn hard lessons in the school of sharp affliction. David learned much during the years that his life was sought by the envious king of Israel, and also while he was in the cave of Adullam, and living actually in the very country of the Philistines. Jacob, Moses, and others, would never have been the men whom they became, had they not been well schooled in adversity, at the beginning of their public life. Many have had reason to say, “It was good for me that I was afflicted.”
Jephthah, too, led by the kind hand of God’s Providence, was taught to “scorn delights, and live laborious days” in his early youth, little knowing at the time, that he was thus really being sent to school, to learn lessons which he could learn so well in no other way, and which were essential to fit him for the great work marked out for him to perform, and the high position he was to occupy in God’s Church in after years.
V. The righteous and the wicked are often compelled to live together in this world.
When driven from his home in Gilead, Jephthah appears to have gone to his mother’s country in Aram, or that part of Syria, which is just across the boundary line from Israel, in the north-east. It was a land of idols, yet Jephthah had lived long enough in Israel to acquire a considerable knowledge of Israel’s God, and no truth makes so deep an impression on the heart that really receives it, as this truth. So he still lived an Israelite, while surrounded by idolaters. Men came around him whom he did not care to seek, and with whose spirit he had no sympathy—men who were unprincipled in character, and abandoned in their conduct, but who, being outlaws, like himself, and in need of a captain, were attracted by the robust strength and imperial bearing of this stalwart Gileadite. They would naturally also acknowledge him all the more readily, as he belonged to what was reckoned a good family in Manasseh, and already some favourable rumours were heard, respecting his feats in arms against the neighbouring nations.
Thus was Jephthah compelled to live with many men who “had no fear of God before their eyes.” On his part, to have a following was a necessity, both, like David, as a protection for his person, and also as a means of fighting the battles of his country and his God. Thus did David (1Sa_22:2, etc.; 1Sa_23:1-5; 1Sa_27:8-9). Besides, Jephthah, like David, was not in a position to choose his company. Idolaters were round him on all sides. These exiles, if they were, or if most of them were, desperadoes, were still the only human beings he could associate with. He would have required to have “gone out of the world,” if he had determined to keep free of the company of the wicked altogether (1Co_5:9-10). That Jephthah should have consented to act with these men, was not a matter of preference or of choice, but of pure necessity. If this is not expressly stated, it is at least as fair an inference as any other, and harmonises well with his general character.
While a good man is on earth, he will always have something in his surroundings, to remind him that he is in the enemy’s country, that it is earth and not heaven. While the people of God are yet only travelling in the wilderness, “a mixed multitude” travel step by step with them. But when they come to cross Jordan, only the circumcised shall be allowed to enter Canaan. There they shall have only their “own company.” Here we must act as far as possible by the rule, “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.” When it is a matter of desire, our prayer should be: “Gather not my soul with sinners.” But when necessity leads us to perform the duties of life in company with the wicked, our prayer should be, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
VI. The same actions may be good or evil, as they are done from right or wrong motives.
If Jephthah and his followers were exiles, or outlaws, the force of their circumstances in such an age, would naturally lead them to act as adventurers. That they made raids in different directions, or prosecuted this kind of life more or less, seems to be implied in the statement, “they went out with him.” To the followers, mere pillage or robbery would doubtless be the chief impelling motive, or, we may add to that, the love of adventure. But to a man of conscience like Jephthah, the guiding motive would be, to do battle against the enemies of Jehovah, and to give suitable recompense for all the wrongs they had done to his people. All the nations were of this category, so that wherever he turned, the same rule of action would hold good (see Crit. Notes on Jdg_5:3). Thus the same action was to Jephthah the fulfilment of a sacred duty, while to his followers, it was an action of robbery and brigandage. It is also important to remember, that the whole of these heathen lands, north and south, east and west, were gifted to Israel, and the destruction of their inhabitants was appointed to God’s people as a duty to be fulfilled. All this would be present to the mind of Jephthah, and give another and totally opposite complexion to the acts, from that which they had in the case of his associates, who did what they did as mere plunderers.
In like manner, any offering made to God, good in itself, may become an abomination, when the motives in the heart are those of hypocrisy, or otherwise displeasing to God (Pro_15:8; Isa_1:11-15). The kiss of salutation, in the way of acknowledging each other as Christian brethren, was well-pleasing to God, but the kiss of Judas in betraying his Master was diabolically bad. To eat flesh that had been offered to idols, was, to an enlightened Christian, nothing more than the means of good nourishment, and most lawful to do, but to eat such, in the presence of one whose conscience felt such an act to be a stumbling-block to his faith, was positively sinful.
VII. God’s choice of instruments to do His work often appears singular in the estimation of men.
Who could have looked for any good thing coming out of the land of Tob—a land beyond the boundary of Israel, and where idolatry was universal? Who could have supposed that the illegitimate son of Gilead’s family, whose mother was a heathen and a stranger to Israel’s God, and who himself in early boyhood was shunned and scowled upon by all the family circle, and was at length so persecuted at home, that he was obliged to take refuge in a foreign land—who could have supposed, that he should become one day the only man, among all the thousands of Israel, that was found qualified to occupy the post of Judge in Israel, and Leader of the hosts of the Lord against the invasion of the enemy. Truly, this was a rose springing up among thorns—staunch loyalty to Jehovah’s name amid surrounding treason, like that of the few solitary faithful ones in Sardis, whose undefiled garments do not escape the notice of Him, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Rev_3:4). God saw the affliction of his boyhood, and made him a child of His grace. Having begun the good work, He keeps him by his mighty power through faith against all the temptations of the wicked (Rev_3:10). Thence Jephthah, when called for to do God’s work, is found to be a man of decided piety. Despised by all around him, with a ring of marauders hailing him as their captain, and an exile from his people and home, this man seemed little likely to be of any use to the church of God in his generation. But “God seeth not as man seeth.” Under the unpromising exterior, He beheld the germ of a thoroughly religious character, and in His holy Providence He made “the last first, and the first last.” Jephthah’s name went down into the Book of God’s remembrance, and that of the Church’s remembrance, as a good name (Heb_11:32), a pearl among dross, a child of God among children of the wicked one.
How like is this picture to that of Jephthah’s great antitype, who was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” yet in due time was exalted to be “the man of God’s right hand.” “The stone which the builders rejected became the head of the corner.”
It illustrates also the difference between God’s estimation and man’s estimation of human character (1Sa_16:6-12; Luk_7:37; Luk_7:50; Jas_4:4; Mar_12:41, &c.; Luk_16:15; Heb_11:38-39).
VIII. God’s wisdom and love in seeming to forget His people’s sufferings.
For the larger part, if not the whole, of the 18 years of the enemy’s oppression, and perhaps longer still, did Jephthah remain in the land of his exile. It must have seemed to him long, very long, to be deprived of having any fellowship with God’s people in their religious exercises, and he must often have prayed very earnestly for a restoration of his captivity in language similar to that of Psalms 42. It must have seemed as if God had forgotten His word (Psa_119:49). And so have others of God’s people often felt (Psa_74:1; Psa_74:10-11; Psa_77:7-10). The children of Abraham were kept for more than two generations in the iron furnace in Egypt, yet all the while the Divine pity was felt, and kept looking down with intense sympathy on the scene presented. “I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them.” Wisdom and love were at work all the time, deciding the best time and mode of deliverance.
But in Jephthah’s case, as in David’s, the long delay previous to his great public work was needed, to build up a character suitable to the greatness of that work. The seven or more years of David’s wanderings among wildernesses, and pits, and caves, and mountains, and valleys, were well occupied in the bringing forth of those clear crystal effusions of a pious heart, which we find in many of the precious Psalms. There is the 63rd for example; we have to thank the wilderness of Judah for that. To his flight beyond Jordan, and its long continuance we owe the 42nd. To his narrow escape from Saul, we owe the 57th; and to his danger when among the Philistines we owe the 56th; so with others. What a loss to the Church of God in all ages, not to have had these genuine outpourings of a pious heart, in the midst of overwhelming troubles. Hence the far-seeing wisdom and love of God, that arranged such a course of life for David.
Thus it was with Jephthah. His many years in the land of Tob, we verily believe he spent more in intercourse with his God, than with his associates in adversity. It would be a relief to him to ponder over from day to day the marvellous history, which Moses and Joshua had left behind them of God’s mighty acts of love, and power on behalf of His people; in proof of which, we have a specimen of the accuracy and fulness of his knowledge, in his reasoning with the King of Ammon. Little is indeed recorded, but when it is so, we are to take it, that that little is but a specimen of more that might have been given.
IX. It is wise to make the best of one’s circumstances, however adverse.
Many would have said, in his circumstances, that it was of no use to try to do anything to better one’s position, or even to do anything for the glory of God, and the good of His church. But this man of faith improved such opportunities as he had, and gained such a name for zeal in vindicating the cause of Jehovah, and such fame as a warrior in the field, that all eyes were turned to him in the day of Israel’s distress. He was the first who dared to attack the Ammonites on this occasion, and, according to a public resolution come to, he was chosen to be the captain of Israel’s army (ch. Jdg_10:18).
X. How legible the records of Scripture history are, compared with those of profane history.
How clear and distinct in every line is the account here given of what took place in Jephthah’s days! Yet this is supposed to be about the time of the Trojan war, ending in the overthrow of that famous town by the Greeks. That is reckoned to be about the dawn of general history outside the Bible; and yet even that is so much under a haze, that it is difficult to say how much of the account is truth, and how much is fable. Even before this time, as far back as the days of Moses, the ink seems yet scarcely dry on the page (if the expression might be allowed), everything being so fresh and legible, while all profane records, even of a date less remote, seem covered with lichen, or are musty and moth-eaten.
XI. The unwisdom of despising anyone in the day of prosperity.
The brethren of Jephthah were foolish enough to do this, and lived afterwards bitterly to lament it. God has so dovetailed society together, and made one part so necessary to another (as in the case of the human body), that in many cases, that member of it whom we think we may frown upon or injure at pleasure, may turn out at another time to be a most valuable auxiliary. God has it all arranged in His plan, that now one, now another, of our fellow creatures, shall serve us materially at certain points of our history, and as we do not know who these persons are, our wisdom is to despise no one, but live in amity and peace with all. This is only in conformity with the great law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Jephthah might be base in the estimation of his brethren, but the day came round, when both they and the brethren of Joseph found it was a capital error to despise their brother. “Base things of the world, and things which are not, hath God chosen to bring to nought things that are.” “Kings often despise their soldiers, until such times as their crowns begin to hang on the one side of their heads.”—[Trapp.]
A good many years ago, a young man who had been brought up in a religious family circle in Scotland, went out to India to join the army there. He took with him all the peculiarities of the somewhat antiquated and austere school of religion in which he had been trained, including not only the practice of prayer and reading of the Scriptures twice a day, and his strict observance of the Lord’s Day, but also such matters as the great length of his prayers, the blessing asked before meat, and the thanks returned after it being also of unusual length, the quaint nature of the language used, and the quaint tone in which it was spoken, his manifold scruples of conscience to joining with his comrades in any practice, important or unimportant, which he thought to be wrong, with many other points of a similar character. These soon drew down upon him a storm of ridicule from the officers of the regiment to which he belonged. He became the butt of innumerable taunts and jeers, his religious profession was treated with constant derision, and every day for years the artillery of reproach was more or less directed against him. In silence and in meekness he endured it all. After some years, a dreadful plague broke out in the camp. Many were laid low and many died. So virulent was the nature of the malady, that none had the courage to approach the victims to supply them with the means of healing. Now was the opportunity for the man of prayer. Fearlessly he entered the area where death was doing its work. He alone day after day stood at the bedsides of the dying, doing the duty of physician, nurse, and chaplain; and he alone had the courage to prepare the dead for a decent sepulture. At length the plague was stayed, and he who formerly had been the object of so much insult and mockery now rose to the rank of a hero. No man was so highly honoured. The last became first, and he was promoted at once from the rank of cadet to that of captain. A prayer meeting under his auspices was opened, which soon became numerously attended, and ere long a second meeting was opened, the culmination of which was, that a revival of religion took place amid signal marks of the Divine blessing. “Them that honour me I will honour.”
XII. Confession is better than prevarication (Jdg_11:7-8).
It is nobler to confess at once frankly we have done wrong, and are come to make amends, than to begin partly to deny and partly to palliate, the unworthy act of days gone by (Pro_28:13; Gen_32:31-32; with Gen_42:21-22; 1Ki_18:17-18).
XIII. A pious character formed diligently in secret will sooner or later be justified openly.
Whatever men’s first impressions might be about this young man who was banished from his home, when God’s time came for a revelation of his true character, there could be no mistake about the spirit of loyalty to his God which he had cultivated, when there was no eye upon him. He began by not fighting with his brethren, but acknowledged the disadvantage arising from his birth (Deu_23:2). He submitted to lead the life of an adventurer. He did not worship strange gods in a heathen land. Afterwards, when it was in his power, he did not take revenge on his brethren by refusing to agree to their requests. He looked for all success as coming only from the God of Israel. The fight he entered into with Ammon was only for the glory of the God of Israel, and not for showing his own prowess. He puts the whole transaction before God in prayer, and by a solemn service, ere he takes a single step in carrying out his mission. All these and other points come out at last in connection with this man’s character, and show how high it stood with God (Pro_4:18; Job_17:9; Act_7:35-38; 1Sa_17:34-37).
XIV. To look for God’s presence and blessing in all our work is the sure way to success (Jdg_11:10-11).
He acknowledges that all victory comes, not through his prowess or skill, but solely from the God of Israel; and he seems to hint that now, when the people are truly mourning for their sins, there was a good hope that God Would deliver the enemy into their hands. This spirit of Jephthah is yet more clearly shown by his “uttering all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh.” In every step he took in so solemn a transaction he called God to witness. David did this continually, and Jephthah, like David, has prospered whithersoever he went. “I have set the Lord always before me” is the proper rule of guidance for every good man (Pro_3:6; Psa_37:5-6; Psa_80:16-17).
XV. It is better to go round about to do what is right, than to go straightforward to do what is wrong.
To have gone straightforward through either Edom or Moab forcibly, on their way to the promised land, would have been for Israel the practical breach of a Divine command, for God had given the one territory to the children of Esau for an inheritance, and the other in like manner to the children of Lot. There are many things in life, where it would save us much trouble if we could get at them directly, instead of having to make a wide detour to the right hand or the left. Israel made a long journey to keep by the right (Deu_2:5-9).
XVI. Past history is full of instruction for the actors in the present (Jdg_11:16-27; Rom_15:4; 1Co_10:11).
XVII. When God appoints a man to do a special work, He gives him special qualifications for it.
He sends none a warfare on their own charges. “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.” This was done specially to endow him with every gift and grace that he might require for the fulfilment of his arduous work. Thus was Joshua endowed (Jos_1:5; Jos_1:7). Jeremiah (ch. Jdg_1:17-19). David (Psa_71:16), and even the Messiah Himself (Isa_61:1; Isa_11:2-3).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Jephthah's Victory over the Ammonites. His Rash Vow
Jephthah's Victory over the Ammonites. His Rash Vow
1-11. The Choice of Jephthah.
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1. As the son of a harlot, Jephthah has no legal standing in the tribe. Gilead begat] Throughout the rest of the narrative Gilead is the name of a place, not a person (cp. Jdg_12:7). Here Gilead's 'sons' represent the legitimate tribesmen.
3. Tob] must have been near Gilead, probably to the NE. (cp. 2Sa_10:6). Vain men] see on Jdg_9:4. 'Broken men,' such as came to David at the cave of Adullam (1Sa_22:2). Went out] on forays.
9. Jephthah insists on being more than a hired captain: he will be reinstated in the tribe, and placed at its head permanently: cp. 1Sa_11:15.
11. Before the Lord] in the holy place at Mizpeh, so that there would be no going back from the bargain.
12-28. Jephthah and the Ammonite chieftain. For this appeal to the enemy's sense of right cp. Num_20:14., an event to which Jephthah here refers.
13. See on Jdg_10:7. Restore] The possessions of Israel are still in dispute.
18. Jephthah points out that Israel made a wide detour so as to leave the real territory of Moab free; he does not refer specifically to Amnion, but in the following vv., as here, he seems to have Moab specially in his mind. The two peoples were akin to one another: cp. Gen_19:37, Gen_19:38.
19. See Num_21:21. Heshbon is 16 m. E. of the Jordan, and 12 m. S. of the capital of Ammon. The Amorite territory had belonged to Moab formerly (Num_21:26).
20. Coast] RV 'border,' i.e. territory. Jahaz] cp. Num_21:28; Deu_2:32 a Moabite city.
22. The wilderness] the Eastern desert.
23. Jephthah's argument (see on Jdg_11:19) is that no land had been taken from Moab or Ammon, only from the aboriginal Amorites.
24. Chemosh] properly, the god of Moab. The Ammonite god was Milcom (1Ki_11:33, etc.). It has been inferred that Jephthah, or the narrator of Jephthah's words, believed in the existence and power of Chemosh as in that of Jehovah: but this cannot be held to be certain: see also Jdg_11:27. An interesting commentary on this passage is to be found in an inscription of Mesha, king of Moab (2Ki_3:4.), who ascribes all his defeats to the wrath of Chemosh, and his conquests over Israel to Chemosh's goodwill.
25. RV rightly puts the stop at the end of the v. Jdg_11:26 begins a fresh question: see Num_22:2.
26. Aroer] on the N. bank of the Arnon, like Heshbon and Jahaz, is a Moabite town. The Ammonite town, Rabbath-Ammon, is unmentioned. Three hundred years] The different periods hitherto mentioned in the book amount to 301 years.
29-33. Jephthah's Victory over Ammon.
29. The Spirit of the Lord] cp. 7:34. In Jdg_11:11 Jephthah and all the people are already at Mizpeh. If these words stand in the right place, they must refer to further journeys taken by Jephthah to rouse the whole people, previous to attacking the Ammonites.
30, 31. Cp. the vows of Jacob (Gen_28:20), Hannah (1Sa_1:11), Absalom (2Sa_15:8). Whatsoever] RM 'whosoever.' Who would have been more likely to come out to meet the returning captain than his only daughter? Mesha, king of Moab, sacrificed his eldest son in the stress of a siege (2Ki_3:27), and that the rite of child-sacrifice was not unknown in Israel is shown by 2Ki_16:3; 2Ki_21:6; Jer_7:31; Eze_16:20; Eze_20:26; Mic_6:7, etc. Cp. also Genesis 22.
33. The plain of vineyards] should be a proper name, Abel-cheramim (so RV).
34-40. The fulfilment of Jephthah's vow. The tragic story is told with consummate art and noble reticence. There is no reason to doubt its literal truth.
34. Came out to meet him] cp. Exo_15:20; 1Sa_18:6.
35. Thou] The pronoun is emphatic. Jephthah had had troubles enough both from his kinsmen and his foes. When his daughter comes out to meet him, the full significance of his self-imposed vow bows him strengthless to the ground.
36. His daughter divines what is in his mind: for she could hardly have learned of his vow beforehand (Jdg_11:34).
37. Bewail my virginity] The greatest grief of a Hebrew woman consisted in being childless. The writer leaves us in no doubt of her fate.
40. Lament] RV 'celebrate.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v29 Jephthah seems to have been judge only of northeast…
Jephthah
Jephthah seems to have been judge only of northeast Israel.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 11 Jephthah and the Ammonites
CHAPTER 11 Jephthah and the Ammonites
1. Jephthah’s covenant (Jdg 11:1-11)
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2. The messages to Ammon (Jdg 11:12-28)
3. Jephthah’s vow and victory (Jdg 11:29-33)
4. Jephthah keeps his vow (Jdg 11:34-40)
Jephthah the judge who delivered Israel from the servitude of Ammon was the offspring of an unholy union “the son of an harlot.” Then he became an outcast and had to flee from his brethren. He dwelt in the land of Tob (goodness) and vain, or worthless, men gathered unto him. Yet he was a mighty man of valor. He was therefore an humble instrument, despised and rejected by his own. But finally those who rejected him had to send for Jephthah to be their saviour from the hands of the children of Ammon. They had to own him as their leader, whom they had hated and cast out on account of his lowly birth. He reminds us of our Lord, who was hated by His own and who is yet to be their deliverer.
Jephthah means “he opens.” Gilead, to which he belonged, means “witness.” The enemy, Ammon, as we stated in the annotations of the previous chapter, typifies for us rationalism and the wicked errors connected with it, which distress the people of God. Here then we have in a simple yet blessed way the deliverance from those evils indicated. It needs “a true witness,” one who “opens.” The witness of an opened Word, the testimony of the Word of God and with it the Spirit of God, will make an end of error. It is the only true way to combat the wicked departures from the faith so prominent in the last days. How God in this book bears witness in types to the one remedy for all the declensions and backslidings of His people! Othniel has Debir “the Word”; Ehud with his sword, the sword of the Spirit; Shamgar and his oxgoad; Deborah and Lapidoth, the Word and the Spirit; the barley loaf which smote down Midian’s tent and Jephthah, the one who opens, the true witness.
Jephthah made a hasty vow. It was bargaining with Jehovah, as Jacob did. And when his daughter met him first the awful vow was carried out. In reading the story one can hardly escape the literal offering up of the child.
“it is true that a mode of interpreting this vow and its fulfilment has been proposed, according to which Jephthah’s daughter was not offered as a sacrifice, but devoted to a life of celibacy, and consecrated to the service of the tabernacle; and the confirmation of this view has been sought in the institution of an order of females who served before the tabernacle (Exo 38:8; 1Sa 2:22; Luk 2:37). Luther already remarked: ‘Some maintain that she was not sacrificed, but the text is too clear to admit of this interpretation.’ But stronger evidence of her sacrifice than even the unambiguous words of the vow afford, is found in the distress of the father, in the magnanimous resignation of the daughter, in the annual commemoration and lamentation of the daughters of Israel, and, particularly, in the narrative of the historian himself, who is not able to describe clearly and distinctly the terrible scene on which he gazes both with admiration and with abhorrence. The Law undoubtedly prohibited human sacrifices as the extreme of all heathen abominations (Lev 18:21; Deu 12:31, etc.). But the age of the judges had descended to a point far below the lofty position occupied by the Law.” (J.H. Kurtz, Sacred History.)
And yet there are difficulties in connection with literal interpretation. The word burnt-offering is in the Hebrew “an offering that ascends.”
“The great Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages have, in opposition to the Talmud, pointed out that these two last clauses (‘shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering’) are not identical. It is never said of an animal burnt offering that it ‘should be to Jehovah,’ for the simple reason that as a burnt offering it is such. But where human beings are offered to Jehovah, there the expression is used, as in the case of the firstborn among Israel and of Levi (Num 3:12-13). But in these cases it has never been suggested that there was actual human sacrifice. If the loving daughter had devoted herself to death, it is next to incredible that she should have wished to have spent the two months of her life conceded to her, not with her broken-hearted father, but in the mountains with her companions” (A. Edersheim).
Whatever it was, one thing stands out very prominently, the loyalty of Jephthah to Jehovah and the obedience and surrender of the daughter.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 29 Jephthah Chosen as Leader Against Ammon
Jephthah Chosen as Leader Against Ammon
v. 1. Now Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty man of valor, distinguished for courage and energy, but he was the son of an harlot, born outside of wedlock; and Gilead, one of the prominent men of the tribe, begat Jephthah, afterwards acknowledging him and rearing him in his house.
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v. 2. And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, expelled him from the home as not on the same level with them, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman, of one who was not properly a wife, even in the sense of a concubine, the stain resting upon his birth excluded him from the rights of a child in the family.
v. 3. Then Jephthah, unable to find support among the elders of Gilead, fled from his brethren, an outcast of society, and dwelt in the land of Tob, a region toward the northeast, on the boundary of Syria; and there were gathered vain men, idle adventurers, to Jephthah, and went out with him, on expeditions of war and plunder, after the manner of the Bedouins.
v. 4. And it came to pass in process of time that the children of Ammon made war against Israel, as related in the preceding chapter.
v. 5. And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob, for they believed him, with his qualities of valor and sagacity, with his military ability, to be the very man in this emergency;
v. 6. and they said unto Jephthah, who had meanwhile acquired fame, rest, a family, and possessions, and was a worshiper of the true God, Come and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
v. 7. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, in reminding them of the former harsh treatment which he had received at their hands, Did not ye hate me and expel me out of my father’s house, namely, by not taking his part against the jealous brothers of his family? And why are ye come unto me now, when ye are in distress? So many years they had permitted the wrong to be unrighted, but now that they were in trouble they could find him.
v. 8. And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us and fight against the children of Ammon and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. That was their way of acknowledging the wrong they had done and trying to atone for it.
v. 9. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon and the Lord deliver them before me, shall I be your head? It is a condition rather than a question: If you bring me back, and then stand united to fight Ammon and Jehovah finds you worthy of His blessing, then I will be your head.
v. 10. And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, with a solemn oath, The Lord be witness between us if we do not so according to thy words. Not only in their obedience toward him, but also in their behavior toward Jehovah they were willing to be guided by his instruction and direction.
v. 11. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them, leader in both peace and war; and Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh, he repeated the conditions under which he would accept the office, and stated the obligations which devolved upon both him and the people. Thus Jephthah forgave and forgot the past insults in his willingness to serve Jehovah.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 29, 32, 34, 36, 38 This is someone who is from the region of…
Gileadite
This is someone who is from the region of Gilead. It is a coincidence that his father's name is also Gilead. See how you translated this in Judges 10:3. (See: How to Translate Names)
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When his wife's sons grew up
"When the sons of Gilead's wife became adults"
the land of Tob
Tob is the name of a region. (See: How to Translate Names)
they came and went with him
"they followed him" or "they went everywhere together"
translationWords
Jephthah
Gilead
might
soldier
prostitute
inherit
lawful
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.