Introduction
This chapter of Judges contains an enormous amount of information that might seem superfluous and tedious to all but historians. But, it helps us immensely to understand why certain decisions were made if we will take the time to digest all which is recorded.
Also, it is here in which we find the very controversial matter of Jephthah making a vow to God which ended up with a horrible unintended consequence: the sacrifice of his daughter. I say this is controversial because what actually happened has been hotly debated within Christian (and Jewish circles to a lesser degree) for a long time, with strong sentiment on both sides of the argument. We will join that fracas in due time.
While the aforementioned incident is usually the focal point of Bible study and discussion for this chapter, if we look closer, we will see there is actually another (and perhaps more important) issue to deal with. It is an issue which has profound implications in our current era. These concern the claims of Israel's neighbors on the land God gave to Israel through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But first, this chapter introduces us to Jephthah.
A. Jephthah negotiates with the Ammonites
1. (Judges 11:1-3) Jephthah's background before his rise to leadership
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah. Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves about Jephthah, and they went out with him.
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot: Verse one says Jephthah (his name means "he opens") was a brave soldier, but he was also the son of a prostitute. His father was a Hebrew man, Gilead, who sired other sons as well by means of his legal wife (presumably she was a Hebrew). But when Gilead's other sons grew up, they drove Jephthah away because they did not want to share their family inheritance with him.
Let us immediately clear up some erroneous doctrine about Jephthah. First, he was an illegitimate child of Gilead. He was a son born to a prostitute. The Hebrew words say he was born to an ishshah zonah. Ishshah means female (or woman) and zonah means one who commits fornication, a harlot or a prostitute. Some Rabbis have made it a tradition that Jephthah's mother was actually Gilead's concubine. That is absolutely false. There is no hint of such a thing. This doctrine was only arrived at to try to find merit for Jephthah because later passages accord him much honor. Zonah is the common Hebrew word for prostitute, and it is used in no other way. Jephthah's mother was a prostitute, not a concubine.
Sadly, it was not all the uncommon for a man in that era to produce illegitimate children with a prostitute. Usually, the father had little to nothing to do with the illegitimate child. If the child could be proved to be the man's offspring, he typically had no interest in legitimizing the child. What is also demonstrated here is a prostitute was common and leading men of Israel partook of these women rather routinely. There was no social stigma for having sex with a harlot while being married, even among the Hebrews. This should give us some insight as to how low Israel had sunk by this time. But it was also not something which was openly discussed nor admitted. So the odds of any child of a harlot being claimed by his or her father was near zero.
Illegitimate children of harlots were the lowest of the low in Israelite society (and most other societies as well). They were ignored and scorned, had no rights, received no schooling and were social outcasts. They lived miserable poverty stricken lives.
You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house: Gilead must have had an attack of conscience and must have made it clear to his legitimate sons that Jephthah was to be accorded family status such that he would inherit some of the family's wealth. Gilead's legitimate children were not happy about this. Not only would Jephthah take away from their portion but it also brought this social misfit too near to this family of aristocrats for comfort. I suspect we all know of family situations where a well-to-do person with children gets divorced or is widowed and then remarries to someone who has children from a previous marriage. This produces a blended family of biological and step children. Often the natural children of the affluent parent do not like the idea of sharing an inheritance with their stepbrothers and stepsisters. So this sort of thing is an age-old problem.
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob: Jephthah left the area of Gilead and went to a place called Tob, which means "good". There he formed a gang. Jephthah must have gain quite a reputation as a fighter and leader of fighters because he would soon be in demand to rescue Israel from yet another oppression of foreigners.
2. (Judges 11:4-8) The elders of Gilead call upon the leadership of Jephthah
It came about after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel. When the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob; and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our chief that we may fight against the sons of Ammon." Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me and drive me from my father's house? So why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?" The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "For this reason we have now returned to you, that you may go with us and fight with the sons of Ammon and become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
It came about after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel: Verse four sets the story into motion. The oppressive Ammonites made war against Israel. The council of the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah to ask him to come and lead Gilead against Ammon. Naturally, Jephthah is not immediately keen to come to the aid of the people who had banished him and treated him so badly. Without doubt, some of his estranged family members were part of the council and among those who approached him.
Equally, without doubt, Jephthah MUST have been their last resort. It took some swallowing of a lot of pride to approach Jephthah and seek his help. Not only that, but the price they would pay for this acceptance of the challenge was going to be huge--the sons of Gilead would have to bow down to the son of a common harlot.
3. (Judges 11:9-11) Jephthah's response to the leaders of Gilead
So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD gives them up to me, will I become your head?" The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said." Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah
So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: Jephthah made them repeat their promise to him and then made a covenant with him by invoking God's name to seal the deal. Even that was not good enough. Jephthah accompanied the council of the elders back to their army headquarters at Mizpah. (Mizpah means watchtower and is where Laban and Jacob make a covenant in Genesis 31.) In a religious ceremony at Mizpah, the elders repeated Jephthah's demands, which they again accepted with a vow.
4. (Judges 11:12-13) Jephthah negotiates with the King of the Ammonites
Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, "What is between you and me, that you have come to me to fight aginst my land?" The king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan; therefore, return them peaceably now."
Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon: With the agreement now publicly and spiritually acknowledged, Jephthah proceeded with the assigned mission. Surprisingly, we find Jephthah is a clever man and not some ignorant street thug. Jephthah's first step is to try and negotiate with the Ammonites. He tried to reason with the Ammonites in an effort to avoid war and loss of life, if it was possible. I suspect he knew this had little chance of success, but it was worth a try. He showed himself to be a skilled negotiator, quite intellectual and a clear thinker. But he was also a tough guy who does not back down.
Working through messengers, he communicated a simple question to the king of the Ammonites: "what do you want and why are you coming to my land to fight?" This message makes a couple of things clear. Jephthah did not represent himself as a hired man but as a patriot. Second, it made clear that as far as he was concerned, there was no reasonable dispute over the land; the land was Israel's.
Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt: In verse 13, we get the Ammonite's response. Israel took this land from us and we lay claim to it and want it back. The king says the wrongful taking took place during the Exodus from Egypt and goes on to describe the area he contends to be his. The area includes from the south, from the Arnon, which was the border between Moab to the south and Ammon to the north. Then the northern border of the disputed territory was described as the Jabok, which was the ancient border between Ammon on its south side and Gilead to the north. The eastern boundary was the Jordan River.
The king of Ammon says to give them back the land, and then there will not be war. Now things are going to get a little complicated and very historical. Hang in there because it is going to be quite relevant.
The king of Ammon's claim is nonsense and has no basis in fact. The truth is that the Ammonites had NEVER held this particular territory because the Arnon River served as the border between Moab and the Amorites. (The Amorites and the Ammonites are not the same thing and are in no way related to each other.)
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