Jephthah

Jephthah was a judge of Israel who delivered the Israelites from the Ammonites but made a tragic vow that resulted in the sacrifice of his daughter.

Jephthah was a judge of Israel during the period between the conquest of Canaan and the establishment of the monarchy. He was the son of Gilead and a prostitute, and his half-brothers drove him away from the family inheritance. Jephthah fled to the land of Tob, where he gathered a group of warriors around him. When the Ammonites attacked Israel, the elders of Gilead asked Jephthah to lead them in battle, promising him leadership if he succeeded. Jephthah made a vow to God, pledging to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house to meet him if he were victorious. Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, but tragically, his daughter was the first to greet him upon his return. Jephthah fulfilled his vow, and his daughter willingly submitted to her fate. Jephthah judged Israel for six years before his death. His story highlights the importance of making wise vows and the consequences of rash decisions. Despite his tragic vow, Jephthah is commended in the New Testament for his faith and is listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

Whom God sets free, or the breaker through, a “mighty man of valour” who delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:1-33), and judged Israel six years (12:7). He has been described as “a wild, daring, Gilead mountaineer, a sort of warrior Elijah.” After forty-five years of comparative quiet Israel again apostatized, and in “process of time the children of Ammon made war against Israel” (11:5). In their distress the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob, to which he had fled when driven out wrongfully by his brothers from his father’s inheritance (2), and the people made him their head and captain. The “elders of Gilead” in their extremity summoned him to their aid, and he at once undertook the conduct of the war against Ammon. Twice he sent an embassy to the king of Ammon, but in vain. War was inevitable. The people obeyed his summons, and “the spirit of the Lord came upon him.” Before engaging in war he vowed that if successful he would offer as a “burnt-offering” whatever would come out of the door of his house first to meet him on his return. The defeat of the Ammonites was complete. “He smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards [Heb. ‘Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter” (Judg. 11:33). The men of Ephraim regarded themselves as insulted in not having been called by Jephthah to go with him to war against Ammon. This led to a war between the men of Gilead and Ephraim (12:4), in which many of the Ephraimites perished. “Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead” (7).