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Juízes 11

BLIVRE · Chapter 11/21

1Existia então Jefté, gileadita, homem valente, filho de uma prostituta, ao qual havia gerado Gileade.

2E a mulher de Gileade também lhe havia dado à luz filhos; os quais quando foram grandes, lançaram fora a Jefté, dizendo-lhe: Não herdarás na casa de nosso pai, porque és bastardo.

3Fugindo, pois, Jefté por causa de seus irmãos, habitou em terra de Tobe; e juntaram-se com ele homens ociosos, os quais com ele saíam.

4E aconteceu que depois de dias os filhos de Amom fizeram guerra contra Israel:

5E quando os filhos de Amom tinham guerra contra Israel, os anciãos de Gileade foram para fazer voltar a Jefté da terra de Tobe;

6E disseram a Jefté: Vem, e serás nosso capitão, para que lutemos com os filhos de Amom.

7E Jefté respondeu aos anciãos de Gileade: Não me odiastes, e me lançastes da casa de meu pai? por que pois vindes agora a mim quando estais em aflição?

8E os anciãos de Gileade responderam a Jefté: Por esta mesma causa voltamos agora a ti, para que venhas conosco, e lutes contra os filhos de Amom, e nos sejas cabeça a todos os que moramos em Gileade.

9Jefté então disse aos anciãos de Gileade: Se me fazeis voltar para que lute contra os filhos de Amom, e o SENHOR os entregar diante de mim, serei eu vossa cabeça?

10E os anciãos de Gileade responderam a Jefté: O SENHOR ouça entre nós, se não fizermos como tu dizes.

11Então Jefté veio com os anciãos de Gileade, e o povo o elegeu por seu cabeça e príncipe; e Jefté falou todas seus palavras diante do SENHOR em Mispá.

12E enviou Jefté embaixadores ao rei dos amonitas, dizendo: Que tens tu comigo que vieste a mim para fazer guerra em minha terra?

13E o rei dos amonitas respondeu aos embaixadores de Jefté: Porquanto Israel tomou minha terra, quando subiu do Egito, desde Arnom até Jaboque e o Jordão; portanto, devolve-as agora em paz.

14E Jefté voltou a enviar outros embaixadores ao rei dos amonitas,

15Para dizer-lhe: Jefté disse assim: Israel não tomou terra de Moabe, nem terra dos filhos de Amom:

16Mas subindo Israel do Egito, andou pelo deserto até o mar Vermelho, e chegou a Cades.

17Então Israel enviou embaixadores ao rei de Edom, dizendo: Eu te rogo que me deixes passar por tua terra. Mas o rei de Edom não os escutou. Enviou também ao rei de Moabe; o qual tampouco quis: ficou, portanto, Israel em Cades.

18Depois, indo pelo deserto, rodeou a terra de Edom e a terra de Moabe, e vindo pelo lado oriental da terra de Moabe, assentou seu acampamento de outra parte de Arnom, e não entraram pelo termo de Moabe: porque Arnom é termo de Moabe.

19E enviou Israel embaixadores a Seom rei pelos amorreus, rei de Hesbom, dizendo-lhe: Rogo-te que me deixes passar por tua terra até meu lugar.

20Mas Seom não confiou em Israel para dar-lhe passagem por seu termo; antes juntando Seom toda sua gente, pôs acampamento em Jaza, e lutou contra Israel.

21Porém o SENHOR, o Deus de Israel, entregou Seom e todo o seu povo na mão de Israel, e os derrotou; e Israel tomou posse de toda a terra dos amorreus que habitavam naquela terra.

22Possuíram também todo aquele termo dos amorreus desde Arnom até Jaboque, e desde o deserto até o Jordão.

23Assim que o SENHOR o Deus de Israel expulsou os amorreus diante de seu povo Israel: e o hás de possuir tu?

24Se Camos teu Deus te expulsasse algum, não o possuirias tu? Assim nós possuiremos a tudo aquilo que o SENHOR expulsou nosso Deus de diante de nós.

25És tu agora em algo melhor que Balaque filho de Zipor, rei de Moabe? Teve ele questão contra Israel, ou fez guerra contra eles?

26Quando Israel esteve habitando por trezentos anos a Hesbom e suas aldeias, a Aroer e suas aldeias, e todas as cidades que estão aos termos de Arnom, por que não as reclamaste nesse tempo?

27Assim que, eu nada pequei contra ti, mas tu fazes mal comigo fazendo-me guerra: o SENHOR, que é o juiz, julgue hoje entre os filhos de Israel e os filhos de Amom.

28Mas o rei dos filhos de Amom não atendeu os argumentos de Jefté que lhe enviou.

29E o espírito do SENHOR foi sobre Jefté: e passou por Gileade e Manassés; e dali passou a Mispá de Gileade; e de Mispá de Gileade passou aos filhos de Amom.

30E Jefté fez voto ao SENHOR, dizendo: Se entregares aos amonitas em minhas mãos,

31Qualquer um que me sair a receber das portas de minha casa, quando voltar dos amonitas em paz, será do SENHOR, e lhe oferecerei em holocausto.

32Passou, pois, Jefté aos filhos de Amom para lutar contra eles; e o SENHOR os entregou em sua mão.

33E os feriu de grandíssimo dano desde Aroer até chegar a Minite, vinte cidades; e até a Abel-Queramim. Assim foram dominados os amonitas diante dos filhos de Israel.

34E voltando Jefté a Mispá à sua casa, eis que sua filha lhe saiu a receber com adufes e danças, e era a única, a única sua; não tinha além dela outro filho nem filha.

35E quando ele a viu, rompeu suas roupas dizendo: Ai, filha minha! De verdade me abateste, e tu és dos que me afligem: porque eu abri minha boca ao SENHOR, e não poderei retratar-me.

36Ela então lhe respondeu: Pai meu, se abriste tua boca ao SENHOR, faze de mim como saiu de tua boca, pois que o SENHOR fez vingança em teus inimigos os filhos de Amom.

37E voltou a dizer a seu pai: Faze-me isto: deixa-me por dois meses que vá e desça pelos montes, e chore minha virgindade, eu e minhas companheiras.

38Ele então disse: Vai. E deixou-a por dois meses. E ela foi com suas companheiras, e chorou sua virgindade pelos montes.

39Passados os dois meses, voltou a seu pai, e fez dela conforme seu voto que havia feito. E ela nunca conheceu homem.

40De aqui foi o costume em Israel que de ano em ano iam as virgens de Israel a lamentar à filha de Jefté gileadita, quatro dias no ano.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jephthah, a son rejected for having a different mother, is called to lead against the Ammonites. He makes a rash vow that results in the tragic loss of his only daughter.

Explanation

Jephthah, driven from home by his half-brothers for being the son of a prostitute, becomes the leader of a band of outcasts before being called back by the very elders of Gilead in a time of need — a turnaround that shows how God can use people cast aside by society. Before the battle, he makes a rash vow to offer as a burnt offering whatever first comes out of his house when he returns victorious, never imagining it would be his own daughter. This painful episode has been debated by scholars for centuries — whether she was actually sacrificed or dedicated to perpetual virginity — but the text clearly presents the impulsive vow as a serious mistake on Jephthah's part, a timeless warning against making rash promises to God without considering the consequences.

Fun facts

  • The yearly custom of the daughters of Israel 'lamenting the daughter of Jephthah' for four days (v.40) suggests that the memory of this tragic episode became part of the people's cultural calendar for generations.
  • Jephthah's diplomatic speech to the king of Ammon (v.12-27), citing detailed territorial history from three hundred years earlier, is one of the most elaborate legal arguments in the entire Old Testament.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Juízes 11:1Jephthah is introduced right away as the son of a prostitute, the very reason his brothers later use to drive him out of the house and deny him his inheritance. A man rejected by his own family becomes, out of necessity, the leader Gilead needs in a time of war.
  2. Juízes 11:2Gilead’s wife also has sons, and when they grow up, they drive Jephthah out of the house, telling him he will inherit nothing, since he is the son of another woman.
  3. Juízes 11:3Jephthah flees from his own brothers and goes to live in the land of Tob, where a group of idle men gather around him and start following him.
  4. Juízes 11:4Some time later, the Ammonites go to war against Israel, and the old threat becomes real again.
  5. Juízes 11:5Faced with this war, the leaders of Gilead go to the land of Tob to fetch the very man they had driven out before.
  6. Juízes 11:6They ask Jephthah to be their leader in the fight against the Ammonites, now needing the very person they had once rejected.
  7. Juízes 11:7Jephthah answers with all his pent-up hurt: he asks why they are coming to him now, of all times, in their distress, after having hated him and driven him from his father’s house.
  8. Juízes 11:8The leaders insist, explaining that this is exactly why they have come back: they want him to fight with them and become head over all the people of Gilead.
  9. Juízes 11:9Jephthah proposes a deal: if he fights and the Lord gives him victory over the Ammonites, then he is to become their head in fact.
  10. Juízes 11:10The elders of Gilead agree, saying that the Lord Himself will be witness to the agreement between them.
  11. Juízes 11:11Jephthah accepts, the people make him head and captain over them, and he formally repeats before the Lord, at Mizpeh, everything that had been agreed.
  12. Juízes 11:12Jephthah sends messengers to the king of the Ammonites, asking why he is attacking the land of Israel.
  13. Juízes 11:13The Ammonite king answers that Israel took his land when it came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan, and demands that land back peaceably.
  14. Juízes 11:14Jephthah is not satisfied with this answer and sends fresh messengers to the Ammonite king.
  15. Juízes 11:15Jephthah disputes the charge, insisting that Israel never took land from either Moab or the Ammonites.
  16. Juízes 11:16He explains the real route: when it came up out of Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh, without invading anyone else’s territory.
  17. Juízes 11:17Israel had asked for peaceful passage through the land of Edom and then through Moab, but both kings refused, so the people stayed put at Kadesh.
  18. Juízes 11:18After that, Israel went around the lands of Edom and Moab through the wilderness and camped on the other side of the Arnon, without actually entering Moabite territory, since the Arnon marked the border.
  19. Juízes 11:19Israel then asked passage from Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, for the same reason as before.
  20. Juízes 11:20Sihon did not trust Israel; he gathered his people, camped at Jahaz, and attacked the Israelites instead of letting them pass through.
  21. Juízes 11:21The Lord delivered Sihon and all his people into Israel’s hand, and so the people took possession of all that Amorite land by right of conquest, not by invasion against the Ammonites.
  22. Juízes 11:22Jephthah spells out the borders of this conquered land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
  23. Juízes 11:23Jephthah concludes that it was the Lord who drove out the Amorites before Israel, so it makes no sense for the Ammonite king to lay claim to this land now.
  24. Juízes 11:24He turns the Ammonite king’s own logic against him: just as he would keep whatever his god Chemosh gave him, Israel keeps whatever the Lord has given it.
  25. Juízes 11:25Jephthah asks whether the Ammonite king thinks himself better than Balak, king of Moab, who never dared quarrel or fight against Israel over this same land.
  26. Juízes 11:26Jephthah points out that Israel has already lived three hundred years in Heshbon and its surrounding towns, and asks why the Ammonites never claimed this land before, if it really belonged to them.
  27. Juízes 11:27Jephthah declares that he has not sinned against the Ammonite king and hands the judgment over to the Lord Himself, asking Him to decide between Israel and Ammon.
  28. Juízes 11:28Despite all this argument, the Ammonite king pays no attention to Jephthah’s words, and war becomes unavoidable.
  29. Juízes 11:29The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Jephthah, and he passes through Gilead and Manasseh, crosses Mizpeh of Gilead, and moves on toward the Ammonites for battle.
  30. Juízes 11:30Before fighting, Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord: if He will give him victory over the Ammonites.
  31. Juízes 11:31Jephthah’s vow promises to offer up as a burnt offering whatever first comes out of his house to meet him when he returns victorious, probably expecting an animal, since it was common to keep livestock near the house. The text does not say whether he foresaw that it would be his own daughter.
  32. Juízes 11:32Jephthah advances against the Ammonites to fight, and the Lord delivers them into his hand.
  33. Juízes 11:33Jephthah inflicts a crushing defeat on the Ammonites, taking twenty cities from Aroer to Minnith, as far as the plain of the vineyards, completely subduing the enemy.
  34. Juízes 11:34Coming home to Mizpeh, Jephthah is met by his own daughter, who comes out dancing and playing a timbrel; she was his only child, with no brothers or sisters.
  35. Juízes 11:35When he sees his daughter coming out to meet him, Jephthah tears his clothes and says he cannot take back the word he gave the Lord. The account neither praises nor condemns this decision outright; it simply describes the anguish of a father bound by his own vow.
  36. Juízes 11:36His daughter answers her father’s anguish by telling him he must do to her exactly what he promised the Lord, since it was the Lord who gave him victory over the Ammonites.
  37. Juízes 11:37She asks only for a two-month period to go away into the mountains with her friends and weep over never having married.
  38. Juízes 11:38Jephthah agrees, and she goes with her friends to spend those two months weeping in the mountains.
  39. Juízes 11:39The text says that Jephthah did to her according to the vow he had made, without spelling out exactly what that act was. For this reason scholars have long disagreed over whether to read it as a literal human sacrifice or as the daughter being consecrated to a lifetime of perpetual virginity in service to the sanctuary.
  40. Juízes 11:40Because of this story, a custom arises in Israel: every year the young women go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

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