Actions and Consequences
The Story of Jephthah and His Daughter
Judges 11:1 – 12:7
By Terry Forish
Jephthah the Gileadite was the son of a prostitute who was disowned by the legitimate heirs to his father Gilead’s household. They drove him away to the land of Tob where he became the head of a band of outlaws.
Jephthah had a skill set that was pretty useful in his day, he was a mighty warrior. So, when Israel became threatened by the Ammonites, the elders of Gilead went looking for Jephthah to lead them in battle against the Ammonites. Despite the obvious affront to him, Jephthah placed his trust in the Lord saying: ‘If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.’ One gets the sense that Jephthah had a strong faith and trusted his Lord to guide him through some tough moments despite his chosen career path. So he returns to Gilead to lead them in battle if need be against the Ammonites.
At first Jephthah engages in some diplomacy with the king of the Ammonites wondering why they seek war upon Israel. Here we get a good history lesson and different perspectives on the lands surrounding Israel and the journey that the Israelites made upon leaving Egypt many years before. As is so often the case, this difference of opinion in interpreting history and the failure of both parties to engage in constructive diplomacy sets the stage for conflict. Sounds familiar does it not?
So, Jephthah, guided by the spirit of the Lord travels to do battle. He also makes a vow that will have tragic consequences. He said: ‘If you will give the Ammonites to my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.’
Jephthah was indeed successful inflicting a massive defeat upon the Ammonites. Unfortunately, when Jephthah returned home there was his daughter, his only child, dancing happily to greet him. Remembering his oath to the Lord he became quite distraught. When asked why by his daughter she courageously tells him that he must do as he promised just allow her some time to wander the mountains with her companions. When she returns two months later, Jephthah fulfills his oath to his Lord. An Israelite custom began that for four days every year the daughters of Israel would lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
The story is not quite over yet. In a reprise of the many dynamics that made up the Israelite nation the men of Ephraim came to Jephthah asking why they too were not included in the war against the Ammonites. Again, there was a major difference of opinion which ultimately led to another clash of arms and the untimely death of many Ephraimites. Upon his death some six years later, Jepthah was buried in his home town of Gilead.
judges 11:1-12:7
Jephthah
11Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute, was a mighty warrior. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah away, saying to him, ‘You shall not inherit anything in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.’ 3Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him.
4 After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6They said to Jephthah, ‘Come and be our commander, so that we may fight with the Ammonites.’ 7But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ‘Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father’s house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?’ 8The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘Nevertheless, we have now turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead.’ 9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ‘If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.’ 10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘The Lord will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say.’ 11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, ‘What is there between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?’ 13The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, ‘Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.’ 14Once again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites 15and said to him: ‘Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea* and came to Kadesh. 17Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Let us pass through your land”; but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. 18Then they journeyed through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, arrived on the eastern side of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19Israel then sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, “Let us pass through your land to our country.” 20But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel. 21Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. 22They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place? 24Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones to possess everything that the Lord our God has conquered for our benefit? 25Now are you any better than King Balak son of Zippor of Moab? Did he ever enter into conflict with Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? 26While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that are along the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? 27It is not I who have sinned against you, but you are the one who does me wrong by making war on me. Let the Lord, who is judge, decide today for the Israelites or for the Ammonites.’ 28But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message that Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah’s Vow
29 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt-offering.’ 32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighbourhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.
Jephthah’s Daughter
34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.’ 36She said to him, ‘My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.’ 37And she said to her father, ‘Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander* on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.’ 38‘Go,’ he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that 40for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Intertribal Dissension
12The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, ‘Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you!’ 2Jephthah said to them, ‘My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed us* severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. 3When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand, and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?’ 4Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, ‘You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites—in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.’* 5Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, ‘Let me go over’, the men of Gilead would say to him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ When he said, ‘No’, 6they said to him, ‘Then say Shibboleth’, and he said, ‘Sibboleth’, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in his town in Gilead.
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