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Judges 11

KJV · Chapter 11/21

1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.

2And 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.

3Then 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.

4And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

5And 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:

6And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

7And 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?

8And 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.

9And 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?

10And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.

11Then 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.

12And 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?

13And 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.

14And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:

15And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

16But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;

17Then 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.

18Then 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.

19And 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.

20But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

21And 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.

22And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

23So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

24Wilt 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.

25And 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,

26While 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?

27Wherefore 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.

28Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

29Then 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.

30And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

31Then 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.

32So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

33And 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.

34And 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.

35And 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.

36And 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.

37And 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.

38And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.

39And 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,

40That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

📖 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 11:4Some time later, the Ammonites go to war against Israel, and the old threat becomes real again.
  5. Judges 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. Judges 11:6They ask Jephthah to be their leader in the fight against the Ammonites, now needing the very person they had once rejected.
  7. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 11:10The elders of Gilead agree, saying that the Lord Himself will be witness to the agreement between them.
  11. Judges 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. Judges 11:12Jephthah sends messengers to the king of the Ammonites, asking why he is attacking the land of Israel.
  13. Judges 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. Judges 11:14Jephthah is not satisfied with this answer and sends fresh messengers to the Ammonite king.
  15. Judges 11:15Jephthah disputes the charge, insisting that Israel never took land from either Moab or the Ammonites.
  16. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 11:19Israel then asked passage from Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, for the same reason as before.
  20. Judges 11:20Sihon did not trust Israel; he gathered his people, camped at Jahaz, and attacked the Israelites instead of letting them pass through.
  21. Judges 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. Judges 11:22Jephthah spells out the borders of this conquered land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
  23. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 11:28Despite all this argument, the Ammonite king pays no attention to Jephthah’s words, and war becomes unavoidable.
  29. Judges 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. Judges 11:30Before fighting, Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord: if He will give him victory over the Ammonites.
  31. Judges 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. Judges 11:32Jephthah advances against the Ammonites to fight, and the Lord delivers them into his hand.
  33. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 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. Judges 11:38Jephthah agrees, and she goes with her friends to spend those two months weeping in the mountains.
  39. Judges 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. Judges 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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