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Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.
And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.
Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
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:
And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
And 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?
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.
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?
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?
And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.
But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.
So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest ° me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.
And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.
And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

11:2 And Gilead. Gilead was the general name of the hilly region east of the Jordan, occupied by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh. Apparently this name was given to several Biblical characters (the name itself means “strong rock”), including the father of Jephthah. This Gilead was also a Gileadite–that is, belonging to the tribe descended from Gilead, the son of Machur, the son of Manasseh (Numbers 26:29).


11:3 vain men. Jephthah’s band was essentially composed of misfits and outcasts, but Jephthah was “a mighty man of valor,” and had apparently developed them into a strong fighting army.


11:13 took away my land. Israel had not taken land from the Ammonites, but from the Amorites. Furthermore, they had occupied it for over three hundred years. Most importantly, it had been given to them by God. The Ammonites, therefore, had no legitimate claim to it. Jephthah reveals a keen knowledge of history in this recitation, as well as an acknowledgment of his faith in the true God.


11:26 three hundred years. The chronology of the period of the judges is difficult to decipher, but this statement of Jephthah’s, inserted more or less incidentally in his polemic against the king of Ammon, provides an important constraint on such estimates. The children of Israel conquered Heshbon, Aroer and Arnon, and “dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites” (Numbers 21:24-26) shortly before they crossed the Jordan into Canaan. Thus, the time from the beginning of the conquest under Joshua until the judgeship of Jephthah was about three hundred years. Judges of this period included Othniel (forty years), Ehud (eighty years), Deborah (forty years), Gideon (forty years), Abimelech (three years), Tola (twenty-three years), and Jair (twenty-two years; see Judges 3:11,30; 5:31; 8:28; 9:22; 10:2,3). In addition, a total of fifty-three years of “oppression” are listed (Judges 3:8, 14; 4:3; 6:1), plus eighteen years just before Jephthah.


11:31 and. The Hebrew conjunction, vau, can mean “and” or “or” depending on context. Here it is better rendered “or.” That is, whatever first came forth would be dedicated to the Lord: if a person came out (Jephthah was probably thinking of a servant), he or she would be dedicated to God’s service at the tabernacle, as Samuel would later be (I Samuel 1:11); if an animal came out, it would be offered as a burnt offering. Jephthah apparently kept small flocks of clean animals in his “house” (enclosed area where he lived), and fully expected it to be one of these.


11:31 offer it up. Some competent Hebrew scholars say this clause could as well be translated: “and I will offer to Him a burnt-offering.” In any case, Jephthah was a true man of faith (Hebrews 11:32) and surely knew God’s prohibitions against human sacrifices (e.g., Leviticus 18:21). He would hardly make such a rash vow as to offer a human sacrifice, or carry it out if he had. Although he knew about God’s right to the firstborn (Exodus 13:2–Jephthah’s daughter was his only child), he knew also that she could be redeemed (Exodus 13:15; Leviticus 27:1-4) with a payment of thirty shekels.


11:38 two months. If his daughter were to die, as many interpret this passage, Jephthah would never have sent her away from home for her last two months. It is obvious that they loved each other very much and would not want to be separated under these conditions. This interpretation is clearly wrong.


11:38 bewailed her virginity. Jephthah’s daughter would have bewailed her coming death, not her virginity, if she was to be sacrificed. Rather, she bewailed the fact that she would have to live her whole life without husband and children, merely performing service to the Lord, presumably in some menial capacity at the tabernacle. Yet she was willing to do this, because of her father’s vow and her gratitude to the Lord for His deliverance of her people from the Ammonites.


11:39 according to his vow. Note this does not say that he offered her as a burnt offering, merely that she “knew no man” throughout her life, in accord with her father’s vow.


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