The Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served Baals, the
Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammonites, and Philistines. (Jdg 10:6).
Ammonites, who shattered and crushed them. For 18 years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites
also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. (Jdg 10:7–9).
Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, confessed their sin: they forsook their God and served Baals. The Lord replied that he would no longer save them. (Jdg 10:10–14).
The Israelites then said that the Lord could do with them what he thought best, but they needed to be rescued. They got rid of their foreign gods and began to serve the Lord. The Lord could bear Israel's misery no longer. (Jdg 10:15–16).
That the Israelites got rid of their foreign gods indicated that this time it was a godly sorrow, a true repentance. To repent is to turn and go the other way. It literally means a change of mind.
Idolatry seems to crop up at times of easiness. Disobedience always comes out after a time of rest. This results in the Lord opening up difficult times for the people. After a period of hardship, the people begin to cry out to the Lord. We as Christians can act in the same way.
When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites gathered and camped at Mizpah. The leaders of the people of Gilead told each other that whoever took the lead in attacking the Ammonites would be head of all who lived in Gilead. (Jdg 10:17–18).
Jephthah, a Gileadite, was a mighty warrior. His mother was a prostitute. His father had a legal wife who bore him sons. When they grew up, they said that he won't inherit their common father, and drove Jephthah away because he was the son of another woman. Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him. (Jdg 11:1–3).
Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting Israel, the elders of Gilead
went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. They asked him to be their commander, so that they could fight the Ammonites. He would then be the head of all those who lived in Gilead. The Lord was witness to this promise. Jephthah became head and commander over them. (Jdg 11:4–11).
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king asking why he attacked his land. The king replied that they wanted to get back the land that the Israelites had taken from them. Jephthah said that it was the God of Israel who had driven out the Amorites before his people Israel. Whatever the Lord had given them they would possess. (Jdg 11:12–28).
The Ammonites wanted back the land that had been given to the tribe of Reuben,
the tribe of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, see Joshua.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead. From there he advanced against the Ammonites.
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: If he gave the Ammonites into his hands, everything that came out of the door of his house to meet him when he returned triumphant from the Ammonites would be the Lord’s, and he would offer it as a
Burnt Offering. Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hand. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, his daughter came out and celebrated the victory. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and wept and told her that he had made a vow to the Lord that he couldn't break. She said he would keep his promise. But she asked for two months to roam the hills and weep with her friends, because she would never marry. He let her go for two months. 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 came the Israelite tradition that every year the young women of Israel would go out for four days to commemorate her. (Jdg 11:29–40).
No man can tame the tongue (James 3:7–10, Proverbs 12:18). The Lord deplored the thought of human sacrifice. According to the Mosaic Laws, a vow of this kind could be replaced by an animal sacrifice (Lev 5:4), see Sin Offering in
Moses; Part 14: Sacrifice System. But apparently Jephthah wasn't aware of this.
He had also gained the victory without having to make this vow.
Jephthah's boldness and leadership ability were ultimately not balanced by wisdom. He foolishly made this devastating vow to the Lord (Proverbs 20:25, Num 30:2
(3 in some translations)). We are not to take an oath at all
(Mat 5:33–37, James 5:12).
The Ephraimites asked Jephthah why he went to fight the Ammonites without calling for them. They should burn his house down over him because of that. Jephthah replied that he and his people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and though he called them, they didn't deliver him from their hand. When he saw that they wouldn’t help, he fought the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him the victory over them. (Jdg 12:1–3).
The Ephraimites had previously made a similar complaint to Gideon, see
Gideon and Abimelech. Now they did it again. Gideon solved it by flattery.
Jephthah handled it badly and it ended in a battle between his clan and the Ephraimites, a battle that should have been avoided, they were all Israelites.
Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them because the Ephraimites had said that the Gileadites
were renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim. Whenever a survivor of Ephraim asked to come over, the men of Gilead asked him whether he was an Ephraimite. If he said no, they asked him to say "Shibboleth". If he said "Sibboleth" because he couldn't pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan.
42,000 Ephraimites were killed at that time. (Jdg 12:4–6).
They died because of jealousy and pride.
Jephthah led Israel for six years until he died (Jdg 12:7).
For information on other judges, see The Book of Judges.
