Judges 11:1 ¶ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. 2 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. 3 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.
Here is a very controversial chapter in Judges. Jephthah is
mentioned in Hebrews in the faith chapter of 11, as well, as a man of faith. He
is alienated from his father’s legitimate family, gathering some unsavory types
of men to his leadership.
Judges 11:4 ¶ And it came
to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
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: 6 And they said
unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of
Ammon. 7 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? 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. 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? 10 And the elders
of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so
according to thy words. 11 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.
The Ammonites, who later King David would treat so terribly for a
humiliation, make war on Israel. See 2Samuel 12 and 1Chronicles 20 for that
episode in David’s reign. The people of Ammon originated in an unholy act of
perversion regarding Lot, Abraham’s nephew.
Lot’s youngest daughter, according to Genesis, chapter 19, got him
drunk and had relations with him producing a son, Benammi, who was the father
of the Ammonites.
Jephthah is summoned to lead the Israelites but he admonishes them
in that why do they call him, someone they hold in contempt. But the elders of
Gilead repeat their request for his leadership. You can see the back and forth
on this in this passage. So, Jephthah’s captainship is confirmed.
Judges 11:12 ¶ 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? 13 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. 14 And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the
king of the children of Ammon: 15 And
said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor
the land of the children of Ammon: 16
But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness
unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; 17
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. 18 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. 19 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.
20 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. 21 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. 22 And
they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and
from the wilderness even unto Jordan. 23
So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before
his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it? 24 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. 25 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,
26 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? 27 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. 28 Howbeit the king of the
children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
Ammon’s complaint against the people of Israel was that Israel had
taken land from Ammon when they took the Promised Land.
Numbers 21:24 And Israel
smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto
Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of
Ammon was strong.
They demanded the restoration of their territory. But Jephthah
contended that it was not their territory but had belonged to the Amorites and
was taken in war. Indeed, the verse I listed from Numbers 21 shows that the
Israelites stopped at the border of Ammon because they were too strong to
contend with.
Now, if the Amorites had taken this territory from the Moabites
and Ammonites that is nothing of the Israelites concern.
Numbers 21:26 For Heshbon
was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the
former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.
Why didn’t you do something about it in the three hundred years
since it was taken, he demands? His declarations fall on deaf ears, though.
Judges 11:29 ¶ 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. 30 And Jephthah
vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the
children of Ammon into mine hands, 31
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. 32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of
Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
33 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. 34 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. 35
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. 36 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.
37 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. 38 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. 39 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, 40 That the daughters of
Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days
in a year.
God gives Jephthah His Spirit, placing it on him, as it is said
typically of Old Testament characters under the Law, rather than abiding or
indwelling in them as it is said for the New Testament Christian. He has a
special anointing of God and yet he vows a vow that seems rash considering what
happened.
Ecclesiastes 5:4 When thou
vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools:
pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better
is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
And as it was said in the Law;
Numbers 30:2 If a man vow a
vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not
break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
God gives Jephthah a great victory. When he returns to his house,
to his great dismay, the first individual to come out of his house is his
daughter. So, the question has been argued for centuries as to whether or not
he killed and offered his own daughter as a burnt offering exactly like he
promised.
First, remember that Jephthah is spoken of highly as a great man
of faith in Hebrews, chapter 11.
Hebrews 11:32 And what
shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak,
and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
[Jephthae is Jephthah from Greek language.]
And God said this about human sacrifice, so common among the
Canaanites.
Jeremiah 19:5 They have
built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt
offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into
my mind:
Jeremiah 32:35 And they
built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to
cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech;
which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do
this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Then, we have the daughter asking for time to bewail her
virginity, not her impending death.
37 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.
This brings up an important point. Are we bound to God by a vow
that if we complete it goes against the very things God commands or forbids?
Can you legitimately make a vow to tithe of stolen money when God has told you
not to steal?
Historical commentators are divided about whether the girl was
condemned to death and then offered as a burnt offering or whether the
consignment to virginity for life, denied of the pride of value of producing
offspring, particularly a man-child in that culture, was the substitution for
her death, as if she had been a bull or a lamb.
We may disagree but verse 39 explains it for me with the phrase
after the colon defining what went on before.
39 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, 40 That the daughters of
Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days
in a year.
It is not wise, I don’t think, to compare Abraham willing to offer
up his son, Isaac, at God’s command in Genesis 22 to this because Hebrews tells
us why Abraham was willing to obey such a command which seemed to counter the
promise made to him by God earlier in Genesis.
Hebrews 11:17 By faith
Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, 18
Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
And Genesis itself tells us of Abraham’s confidence in God.
Genesis 22:8 And Abraham
said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they
went both of them together.
So, in my opinion that argument is dead in the water. Whatever you
think happened pray about it and be sure in your mind but open to the Holy Spirit’s
leading. This brings to mind an important point about our reading and
understanding of the Bible in the 21st century.
Modernism, since that event so humorously called The Enlightenment
by secular scholars, would lead us to take the Bible so hyperliterally that we
fail to understand its nuances and subtleties. But, when we consider situations
in the Bible from the perspective we would have if we were writing to a friend
about some event or thought rather than writing a textbook or some kind of instruction
manual we see things a little differently.
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