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 [Hebrews
‘Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter” (Judges 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.) “Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and
was buried in one of the cities of Gilead” (7).
- JEPHTHAH’S VOW (Judges 11:30, 31). After a crushing defeat of the
Ammonites, Jephthah returned to his own house, and the first to welcome
him was his own daughter. This was a terrible blow to the victor, and in
his despair he cried out, “Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very
low...I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and cannot go back.” With
singular nobleness of spirit she answered, “Do to me according to that
which hath proceeded out of thy mouth.” She only asked two months to
bewail her maidenhood with her companions upon the mountains. She
utters no reproach against her father’s rashness, and is content to yield her
life since her father has returned a conqueror. But was it so? Did Jephthah
offer up his daughter as a “burnt-offering”? This question has been much
debated, and there are many able commentators who argue that such a
sacrifice was actually offered. We are constrained, however, by a
consideration of Jephthah’s known piety as a true worshipper of Jehovah,
his evident acquaintance with the law of Moses, to which such sacrifices
were abhorrent (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:31), and the
place he holds in the roll of the heroes of the faith in the Epistle to the
Hebrews (11:32), to conclude that she was only doomed to a life of
perpetual celibacy.