jephthah Summary and Overview

whom God sets free, or the breaker through, a "mighty man of valour" who delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:1-33), and judged Israel six years (12:7). He has been described as "a wild, daring, Gilead mountaineer, a sort of warrior Elijah." After forty-five years of comparative quiet Israel again apostatized, and in "process of time the children of Ammon made war against Israel" (11:5). In their distress the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob, to which he had fled when driven out wrongfully by his brothers from his father's inheritance (2), and the people made him their head and captain. The "elders of Gilead" in their extremity summoned him to their aid, and he at once undertook the conduct of the war against Ammon. Twice he sent an embassy to the king of Ammon, but in vain. War was inevitable. The people obeyed his summons, and "the spirit of the Lord came upon him." Before engaging in war he vowed that if successful he would offer as a "burnt-offering" whatever would come out of the door of his house first to meet him on his return. The defeat of the Ammonites was complete. "He smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards [Heb. 'Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter" (Judg. 11:33). The men of Ephraim regarded themselves as insulted in not having been called by Jephthah to go with him to war against Ammon. This led to a war between the men of Gilead and Ephraim (12:4), in which many of the Ephraimites perished. (See SHIBBOLETH T0003366.) "Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead" (7).

(whom God sets free), A judge about B.C. 1143-1137. His history is contained in #Jud 11:1 ... 12:8| He was a Gileadite, the son of Gilead and a concubine. Driven by the legitimate sons from his father's inheritance, he went to Tob and became the head of a company of freebooters in a debatable land probably belonging to Ammon. #2Sa 10:6| (This land was east of Jordan and southeast of Gilead, and bordered on the desert of Arabia. --ED.) His fame as a bold and successful captain was carried back to his native Gilead; and when the time was ripe for throwing off the yoke of Ammon, Jephthah consented to become the captain of the Gileadite bands, on the condition, solemnly ratified before the Lord in Mizpeh, that int he event of his success against Ammon he should still remain as their acknowledged head. Vowing his vow unto God, #Jud 11:31| that he would offer up as a burn offering whatsoever should come out to meet him if successful, he went forth to battle. The Ammonites were routed with great slaughter; but as the conqueror returned to Mizpeh there came out to meet him his daughter, his only child, with timbrels and dancing. The father is heart-stricken; but the maiden asks only for a respite of two months in which to prepare for death. When that time was ended she returned to her father, who "did with her according to his vow." The tribe of Ephraim challenged Jephthah's right to go to war as he had done, without their concurrence, against Ammon. He first defeated them, then intercepted the fugitives at the fords of Jordan, and there put forty-two thousand men to the sword. He judged Israel six years, and died. It is generally conjectured that his jurisdiction was limited to the transjordanic region. That the daughter of Jephthah was really offered up to God in sacrifice is a conclusion which it seems impossible to avoid. (But there is no word of approval, as if such a sacrifice was acceptable to God. Josephus well says that "the sacrifice was neither sanctioned by the Mosaic ritual nor acceptable to God." The vow and the fulfillment were the mistaken conceptions of a rude chieftain, not acts pleasing to God. --ED.)

JEPH'THAH (whom God sets free), one of the judges of Israel, was the illegitimate son of Gilead, Jud 11:1; and this fact made him so odious to the other children of the family that they banished him from the house, and he took up his residence in the land of Tob, a district of Syria not far from Gilead, and probably the same with Ishtob. 2 Sam 10:8. Here he became the head of a marauding-party; and when a war broke out between the children of Israel and the Ammonites, he probably signalized himself for courage and enterprise. This led the Israelites to seek his aid as their commander-in-chief; and though he objected at first, on the ground of their ill-usage of him, yet, upon their solemn covenant to regard him as their leader in case they succeeded against the Ammonites, he took command of their army. After some preliminary negotiations with the Ammonites, in which the question of the right to the country is discussed with great force and ingenuity, and every attempt to conciliate them proved abortive, the two armies met. The Ammonites were defeated with great loss of life, and their country secured by the Israelites. On the eve of the battle Jephthah made a vow that if he obtained the victory he would devote to God whatever should come forth from his house to meet him on his return home. This turned out to be his daughter, an only child, who welcomed his return with music and dancing. Jephthah was greatly afflicted by this occurrence; but his daughter cheerfully consented to the performance of his vow, which took place at the expiration of two months, and the commemoration of the event by the daughters of Israel was required by a public ordinance. Jud 11:34-40. The Ephraimites quarrelled with Jephthah because they had not been invited to join in the war. But Jephthah again put himself at the head of his army, defeated them, and by the word "shibboleth" detected those Ephraimites who tried to cross the Jordan, and slew them. In all, 42,000 Ephraimites, were slain. Jephthah judged the trans-Jordanic region six years. Jud 12:1-7. The perplexing question what Jephthah did with his daughter will perhaps never obtain a satisfactory answer. The passage reads thus: "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." Jud 11:30-31, An unprejudiced reading of the text leads naturally to the conclusion that Jephthah offered her up as a burnt-sacrifice, but the other opinion, that he devoted his daughter to a life of celibacy, is defended by these arguments: 1. The particle van, which in the A.V. is translated "and" ("and I will offer it up"), should be translated "or." But there is a Hebrew word with that meaning. 2. The emphasis is laid upon "him," which is made to refer to the Lord, and the vow is thus interpreted as contemplating two things: (1) a person to be consecrated to Jehovah, and (2) the additional offering of a burnt-sacrifice. But such a construction would be a solecism in Hebrew. 3. The "burnt-offering" has been taken in a spiritual sense, but that is to put an interpretation upon the word which the Hebrew will not bear. 4. Jephthah could not vow to God a human sacrifice, so abhorrent to him, and so contrary to the whole spirit of the Hebrew religion. Lev 20:2-5; Deut 12:31. But it must be borne in mind that Jephthah was a rude warrior in the semi-barbaric age of the Judges. Celibacy of a voluntary and religious character was unknown in Israel. Jephthah's daughter, on this supposition, would have been the first and last Hebrew nun. The Jews looked upon the family as a divine ordinance, and upon the unmarried state as a misfortune equalled only by that of being a childless wife. It may not be correct to say that each Hebrew woman looked forward to being the mother of the Messiah, but at all events to be a mother was to fulfil the function in society God had designed for her. A vow of celibacy, therefore, would have been contrary to the spirit of the Jewish religion as much as a vow of bloody sacrifice. The sojourn of Jephthah's daughter in the mountains for two months is inconsistent with any such dedication to Jehovah. But if she were to be sacrificed, her home would indeed be filled with too mournful associations, whereas the open air, especially to such a girl, and the solitude of the hills, would be real aids in preparation for death. Jephthah's intense sorrow when she came forth to meet him likewise harmonizes with the literal and natural interpretation.

Son of Gilead by an harlot, the father bearing the same name as the famous Gilead his ancestor. Gilead's sons by his wife drove Jephthah out from share of the father's inheritance as being "son of a strange woman," just as Ishmael and Keturah's sons were sent away by Abraham, so as not to inherit with Isaac (Genesis 21:10, etc.; 25:6). Jephthah went to the land of Tob, N.E. of Persea, between Syria and Ammon (2 Samuel 10:6-8, Ish Tob, man of Tob), and there gathered about him a band of loose (1 Samuel 22:2) men, whom be led in marauding Bedouin-like expeditions. Meantime, through Jehovah's anger at Israel's apostasy to Baalim, Ashtaroth, the gods of Ammon, etc, he sold them (compare Romans 7:14, gave them up to the wages that their sin had earned) into the hands of those very people whose gods they chose (Judges 10:7,17,18), the instrument of their sin beingmade the instrument of their punishment (Proverbs 1:31; Jeremiah 2:19). Then the princes ("elders") of Gilead with Israel encamped at Mizpeh (Judges 10:17,18; 11:5-11), having resolved to make "head" (civil) and "captain" (military) over all Israelite Gilead (the Israelites in Persea) whatever warrior they could find able to lead them against Ammon, applied to Jephthah in Tob. Jephthah, whose temper seems to have been resentful (compare 12), upbraided them with having hated and expelled him out of his father's house; yet it was not just to charge them all with what was the wrong of his brethren alone, except in so far as they connived at and allowed his brethren's act. Passion is unreasoning. They did not reason with him the matter, but acknowledged the wrong done him and said, "therefore (to make amends for this wrong) we turn again to thee now, and if thou go with us and fight against Ammon thou shalt be our head, namely over all Gilead." Jephthah accepted the terms, and "uttered all his words (repeated the conditions and obligations under which he accepted the headship) before Jehovah (as in His presence; not that the ark or any altar of Jehovah was there; simply Jephthah confirmed his engagement by an oath as before Jehovah) in Mizpeh," where the people were met in assembly, Ramoth Mizpeh in Gilead, now Salt. Jephthah before appealing to the sword sent remonstrances to the Ammonite king respecting his invasion of Israel. The marked agreement of Jephthah's appeal with the Pentateuch account proves his having that record before him; compare Judges 11:17,19-22 agreeing almost verbatim with Numbers 20:1; 21:21-25. He adds from independent sources (such as the national lays commemorating Israel's victories, quoted by Moses Numbers 21:14,17,27) that Israel begged from the king of Moab leave to go through his land (Numbers 21:17). The Pentateuch omitted this as having no direct bearing on Israel's further course. The Ammonite king replied that what he claimed was that Israel should restore his land between the Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. This claim was so far true that Israel had taken all the Amorite Sihon's land (because of his wanton assault in answer to Israel's peaceable request for leave to pass through unto "his place," i.e. to Israel's appointed possession), including a portion formerly belonging to Moab and Ammon, but wrested from them by Sihon (Numbers 21:26,28,29); for Joshua 13:25,26 shows that Sihon's conquests must have included, besides the Moabite land mentioned in the Pentateuch, half the Ammonite land E. of Moab and Gilead and W. of the upper Jabbok. But Israel, according to God's prohibition, had not meddled with Edom, Moab, or Ammon(Deuteronomy 2:5,9,19), i.e. with the land which they possessed in Moses' time. What was no longer Ammon's, having been taken from them by Sihon, the prohibition did not debar Israel from. Israel, as Jephthah rejoindered, went round Edom add Moab, along the eastern boundary by see IJE ABARIM (Numbers 21:11-13), on the upper Arnon, the boundary between Moab and the Amorites. Jephthah reasons, Jehovah Elohim of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites, and transferred their land to Israel; Ammon therefore has no claim. Ammon can only claim what his god Chemosh gives him to possess; so Israel is entitled to all that land which Jehovah gives, having dispossessed the previous owners. Further, Jephthah reasons, Balak did not strive against Israel for the once Moabite land taken by the Amorites then transferred to Israel; he bribed Balaam indeed to curse them, but never fought against them. Moreover, it was too late now, after Israel's prescriptive right was recognized for 300 years, for Ammon to put forward such a claim. "I (says Jephthah, representing Israel) have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me." Ammon having rejected his remonstrances, Jephthah gathered his army out of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (northern Gilead and Bashan), and went to (translated Judges 11:29 "passed over to") Mizpeh Gilead, the encampment and rendezvous of Israel (Judges 10:17), and thence to Ammon. He smote them from Aroer to Minnith, 20 cities, "with a very great slaughter,"so that Ammon was completely subdued. Jephthah had vowed, in the event of Jehovah giving him victory, to "offer as a burnt offering whatsoever (rather whosoever) should come forth from the doors of his house to meet him"; certainly not a beast or sheep, for it is human beings not brutes that come forth from a general's doors to meet and congratulate him on his victory. Jephthah intended a hard vow, which the sacrifice of one animal would not be. He left it to Providence to choose what human being should first come forth to meet him. "In his eagerness to smite the foe and thank God for it Jephthah could not think of any particular object to name, great enough to dedicate. He shrank from measuring what was dearest to God, and left this for Him to decide" (Cassel in Herzog Encyclopedia). He hoped (if he thought of his daughter at the time) that Jehovah would not require this hardest of sacrifices. She was his only child; so on her coming out to meet him with timbrels and dances (Exodus 15:20) Jephthah rent his clothes, and exclaimed: "Thou hast brought me very low, for I have opened my mouth (vowing) unto the Lord, and I cannot go back" (Numbers 30:2,3; Ecclesiastes5:2-5; Psalm 15:4 end, 66:14). Her filial obedience, patriotic devotion, and self sacrificing piety shine brightly in her reply: "My father (compare Isaac's reverent submission, Genesis 22:6,7,10), do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of ... Ammon." She only begged two months to bewail with her fellows her virginity, amidst the surrounding valleys and mountains (margin 37). Afterward he did with her according to his vow, namely, doomed her forever to "virginity," as her lamentation on ibis account proves, as also what follows, "she knew no man." So it became "a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to praise (timah , Judges 5:11, not ‘to lament') the daughter of Jephthah ... four days in a year." Jephthah contemplated evidently a human sacrifice. A literal human sacrifice was forbidden as an abomination before Jehovah (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5). It was unknown until introduced by the godless Ahaz and Manasseh. Leviticus 27:28,29 is not in point, for it refers to a forced devoting of the wicked to God's glory in their destruction; God alone could so devote any. Nor was Jephthah otherwise impetuous and hasty; he had not recourse to the sword until negotiation with Ammon proved of no avail. His vow was made, not in the heat of battle without weighing his words, but before he set out. Jephthah, though a freebooter (the godly David was one too), was one who looked to Jehovah as the only Giver of victory, and uttered all his words of engagement with the princes of Gilead "before Jehovah." He showed in his message to Ammon his knowledge of the Pentateuch, therefore he must have known that a human sacrifice was against the spirit of the worship of Jehovah. "The Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah" moreover, which shows he was no Moloch worshipper. Above all Jephthah is made an instance of FAITH for our imitation, in Hebrews 11:32. Therefore the sense in which he fulfilled his vow was "she knew no man," words adverse to the notion of a sacrificial death. He dedicated her life to Jehovah as a spiritual "burnt offering" in a lifelong "virginity." Her willingness to sacrifice herself and her natural aspirations as a virgin, who as the conqueror's daughter might have held the highest place among Israel's matrons, to become like a Gibeonite menial of the sanctuary (Joshua 9:23), as the price of her country's deliverance, is what the virgins used yearly to come to celebrate in praises. They would never have come to praise a human sacrifice; Scripture would never have recorded without censure an anti-theocratic abomination. Moreover literal burnt offerings could only be offered at the altar of the tabernacle. This spiritual burnt offering answers somewhat to Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac (Hebrews 11:17) in will though not in deed, and to the Israelites redeeming their firstborn belonging to Jehovah instead of sacrificing them (Exodus 13:1-13; <041815> Numbers 18:15,16), and to Aaron's offering the Levites to the Lord for an offering for Israel (Numbers 8:10-16), and redeeming vowed persons at an estimation (1 Samuel 1:11,20,22,28; 2:20; Leviticus 27:1, etc.). After the victory was won over Ammon, the tribe of Ephraim, ever jealous of any rival and claiming the supremacy, threatened Jephthah. "Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against ... Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire." Jephthah did not show Gideon's magnanimity in dealing with their perversity. He did not give the "soft answer" that "turneth away wrath,"but let their "grievous words stir up strife" (Proverbs 15:1). Herein Gideon was superior, for "he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city" (Proverbs 16:32). (For "Ephraim gathered ... and went northward." Keil translated it "went to Zaphon, the city of Gad in the Jordan valley": Joshua 13:27; Judges 12:1). Jephthah however answered truly that he had "called them" but they had refused, doubtless because the Gileadites had made Jephthah their commander without consulting Ephraim. They fared as they richly deserved. Besides threats of destroying Jephthah they insultingly had called the Gileadites whom Jephthah led "fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and Manassites,"i.e. a mob of runaway Ephraimites in the midst of the two noblest tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh (compare 1 Samuel 25:10). They who began the strife paid the bitter penalty (Proverbs 17:14). "Shibboleth," a stream, was the test whereby the Gileadites detected the fugitive Ephraimites when trying to cross the Jordan fords, in the hands of their conquerors; 42,000 were slain who betrayed their birth by saying Sibboleth (compare on the Galilean dialect Matthew 26:73; Luke 22:59; Acts 2:7). They who first flung the taunt "fugitives" perished as fugitives at the hands of those they taunted (Proverbs 26:17). Jephthah judged Israel E. of the Jordan six years, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. JEPHUNNEH1. see CALEB 'S father. Of the Kenezites (Numbers 32:12), seemingly an Edomite tribe, Kenaz being a "duke of Edom" (Genesis 36:11,15,20,23). Edomite names occur in Caleb's genealogy, as Shobal (1 Chronicles 2:50,52). If the similarity of some names among Israel and Edom be not due to their being kindred peoples, it shows that Caleb's family was an Edomite one incorporated into Judah. 2. Chronicles 7:58.