Judges 11
TSK
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.
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.
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.
And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

A.M.

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:
And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
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?
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.
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?
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
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.

head

Judges 11:8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore we turn again …

uttered

1 Samuel 23:9-12 And David knew that Saul secretly practiced mischief against him; …

1 Kings 3:7-9 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of …

2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of …

James 1:5,17 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all …

Jephthah uttered. That is, upon his elevation, he immediately retired to his devotion, and in prayer spread the whole matter before God, both his choice to the office, and his execution of the office, as one that had his eye ever toward the Lord, and would do nothing without him; that leaned not to his own understanding or courage, but depended on the Almighty God, and his favour. This is an example worthy of universal imitation; in All Our Ways, whether great or apparently subordinate, let us acknowledge God and seek his direction. So shall we make our way prosperous, and obtain that peace which passeth all understanding. Jephthah opened his campaign with prayer.

before

Judges 10:17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in …

Judges 20:1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was …

1 Samuel 10:17 And Samuel called the people together to the LORD to Mizpeh;

1 Samuel 11:15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king …

Mizpeh. This Mizpeh was east of Jordan in the mountains of Gilead.

Genesis 31:49 And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and you, when …

and hence called Mizpeh

Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, and he passed over …

to distinguish it from another place of the same name, west of Jordan, in the tribe of Judah

Joshua 15:38 And Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel,

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?
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.
And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:
And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

and they

Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from …

from the wilderness. From Arabia Deserta on the east, to Jordan on the west

So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

Jephthah shows that the Israelites did not take the land of the Moabites or Ammonites, but that of the Amorites, which they had conquered from Sihon their king; and although the Amorites had taken the lands in question from the Ammonites, yet the title by which Israel held them was good, because they took them, not from the Ammonites, but from the Amorites.

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.
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,
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?
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.

the judge

Genesis 18:25 That be far from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous …

1 Samuel 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven …

Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would …

Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered …

Psalm 7:11 God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

Psalm 50:6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge …

Psalm 75:7 But God is the judge: he puts down one, and sets up another.

Psalm 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

Psalm 94:2 Lift up yourself, you judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

Psalm 98:9 Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness …

Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you …

Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, …

John 5:22,23 For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son…

Romans 14:10-12 But why do you judge your brother? or why do you set at nothing your brother…

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every …

2 Timothy 4:8 From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which …

be judge

Genesis 16:5 And Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be on you: I have given my maid …

Genesis 31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, …

1 Samuel 24:12,15 The LORD judge between me and you, and the LORD avenge me of you: …

Psalm 7:8,9 The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my …

2 Corinthians 11:11 Why? because I love you not? God knows.

Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
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.
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.

whatsoever. that which cometh forth, which shall come forth. shall surely.

Leviticus 27:2,3,28,29 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When a man shall …

1 Samuel 1:11,28 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed …

1 Samuel 2:18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.

1 Samuel 14:24,44 And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured …

Psalm 66:13,14 I will go into your house with burnt offerings: I will pay you my vows…

and I will. or I will. Wehaaleetheehoo slah, rather, as Dr. Randolph and others contend, ` and I will offer Him a burnt offering;' for hoo may with much more propriety be referred to the person to whom the sacrifice was to be made, than to the thing to be sacrificed. Unless understood in this way, or as the marginal reading, it must have been the vow of a heathen or a madman. If a dog, or other uncleaned animal had met him, he could not have made it a burnt offering; or if his neighbour's wife, sons, etc., his vow gave him no right over them

Leviticus 27:11,12 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice …

Deuteronomy 23:18 You shall not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into …

Psalm 66:13 I will go into your house with burnt offerings: I will pay you my vows,

Isaiah 66:3 He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a …

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
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.

Aroer

Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from …

Minnith. Situated, according to Eusebius, four miles from Heshbon, towards Philadelphia or Rabbath

Ezekiel 27:17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your merchants: they traded …

the plain. or, Abel

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,

did with. That Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter, but consecrated her to the service of God in the tabernacle, in a state of celibacy, will we imagine be evident from the following consideration;1.Human sacrifices were ever an abomination to Jehovah, of which Jephthah could not be ignored; and consequently he would neither have made such a vow, nor carried it into execution.

Leviticus 27:4 And if it be a female, then your estimation shall be thirty shekels.

and surely his own child must have been of more value than thirty shekles

Judges 11:31 Then it shall be, that whatever comes forth of the doors of my house …

Leviticus 27:28,29 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to the …

Deuteronomy 12:31 You shall not do so to the LORD your God: for every abomination to …

Isaiah 66:3 He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a …

custom, or ordinance.

That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge by R. A. Torrey [ca. 1880]
Expanded version courtesy INT Bible ©2013, Used by permission

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