FRAMEWORKS:
Judges 11: The Rise & Folly of Jephthah
v.1-3
Jephthah's Background
v.4-10
The Elders of Gilead plead with Jephthah to help them
v.11-13
Jephthah challenges the Ammonite king
v.14-17
Jephthah recounts to him their history
v.29-33
Jephthah makes a foolish vow in his unbelief
v.34-40
Jephthah fulfils his foolish vow
v.1-3
Jephthah's Background
v.1
Jephthah
the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his
mother was a prostitute.
v.2
Gilead's
wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove
Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our
family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”
v.3
So
Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob,
[thought to be somewhere south-east
of the Sea of Galilee] where
a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.
[Notes:
In the Introduction to this book, we commented on the spectrum
of humanity that is revealed here. In chapter 9 we saw the story
of Abimelek whose mother was a concubine and who thus was looked
down on by his brothers, and how this provoked him to act against
them and kill most of them. Now we find Jephthah whose mother
is a prostitute and, again, who is opposed by the other sons of
the legitimate wife. This leads him, although a great fighter,
to leave that territory and gather round him more disreputable
individuals.]
v.4-10
The Elders of Gilead plead with Jephthah to help them
v.4
Some
time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel,
v.5
the
elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
v.6
“Come,”
they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”
v.7
Jephthah
said to them, “Didn't you hate me and drive me from my father's
house? Why do you come to me now, when you're in trouble?”
v.8
The
elders of Gilead [to east of the
Jordan] said to him, “Nevertheless,
we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites,
and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”
v.9
Jephthah
answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and
the Lord
gives them to me—will I really be your head?”
v.10
The
elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord
is our witness;
we will certainly do as you say.”
[Notes:
We left the previous chapter with the Ammonites coming against
the Israelites east of the Jordan. Jephthah's reputation as a
fighter means that the elders of Gilead who are in difficulties
with the Ammonites, eventually send for Jephthah and promise to
make him their leader if he helps them against the Ammonites.]
v.11-13
Jephthah challenges the Ammonite king
v.11
So
Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him
head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before
the Lord
in Mizpah.
v.12
Then
Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question:
“What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”
v.13
The
king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, “When Israel
came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to
the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”
[Notes:
So he goes to the Israelite leaders of this area to the east of
the Jordan and becomes their leader. His first act is to send
to the king of the Ammonites and ask why they are oppressing them.
The real answer [in 10:7] is that God has lifted off His hand
of restraint from them so that their sinful attitudes provoke
them to plunder Israel, but he wouldn't understand that.]
v.14-28
Jephthah recounts to him their history – to no avail
v.14
Jephthah
sent back messengers to the Ammonite king,
v.15
saying:
“This
is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or
the land of the Ammonites.
v.16
But
when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness
to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh.
v.17
Then
Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission
to go through your country,' but the king of Edom would not listen.
They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel
stayed at Kadesh.
v.18
“Next
they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom
and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab,
and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter
the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.
v.19
“Then
Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled
in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country
to our own place.'
v.20
Sihon,
however, did not trust Israel
to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and
encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
v.21
“Then
the Lord ,
the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel's
hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of
the Amorites who lived in that country,
v.22
capturing
all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to
the Jordan.
v.23
“Now
since the Lord,
the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people
Israel, what right have you to take it over?
v.24
Will
you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever
the Lord our God has given us, we will possess.
v.25
Are
you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he
ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them?
v.26
For
three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding
settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn't you
retake them during that time?
v.27 I
have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war
against me. Let the Lord
, the Judge,
decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
v.28
The
king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah
sent him.
[Notes:
Jephthah, in his message to the king of the Ammonites, recounts
their history how, when they first came, they spared these lands
and how subsequently they have not warred against them, so why
is he now attacking them? But sin often rejects logical appeals
and the king ignores his message.]
v.29-33
Jephthah makes a foolish vow in his unbelief
v.29
Then
the Spirit of the Lord
came on Jephthah.
He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead,
and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
v.30
And
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into
my hands,
v.31 whatever
comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in
triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's,
and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
v.32
Then
Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord
gave them
into his hands.
v.33
He
devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith,
as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
[Notes:
We now see something wonderful and then something terrible. The
wonderful thing is that, as with a number of previous judges,
the Holy Spirit comes on Jephthah and emboldens him to go against
the Ammonites. What is tragic is that Jephthah doesn't realize
what is happening and [possibly] his low self-esteem from his
family's rejection of him means he can't believe this is God empowering
him and using him to deliver His people. He therefore makes one
of the most foolish vows seen in the Bible, obviously to mistakenly
bribe God to be on his side!!! Everything about the vow is stupid.
First, he doesn't need to make it, God IS on his side. Second
whatever is he doing offering to sacrifice a human being coming
out of his house? Did he expect it to be a servant? As we'll see
it turned out to be his daughter. From every angle this is crass
stupidity born out of unbelief. Nevertheless the Lord still uses
him to deliver Israel from the Ammonites.]
v.34-40
Jephthah fulfils his foolish vow
v.34 When
Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to
meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She
was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.
v.35
When
he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter!
You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow
to the Lord
that I cannot
break.”
v.36
“My
father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord.
Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord
has avenged
you of your enemies, the Ammonites.
v.37
But
grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam
the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
v.38
“You
may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her
friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.
v.39 After
the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her
as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From
this comes the Israelite tradition
v.40
that
each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate
the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
[Notes:
If making the vow had been stupid, actually fulfilling it and
killing his daughter was ten times worse! Year ahead Ezekiel would
speak God's heart about death [see Ezek 18:23,32] and the Lord
would certainly not wish for the death of a girl. Indeed one of
His reasons for ousting the occupants of Canaan was because they
sacrificed their children. If it was a sin to break a vow, then
the right path was to throw oneself on the mercy of God and offer
a sin offering. Vows were never meant to be made to do something
that was contrary to God's laws.]