Judges 11: Jephthah's Vow / Jephtah's Daughter
Judges 12: Intertribal Dissension / Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
This is the second part in a two-part series on the judge Jephthah. Read Part I here.
Jephthah's Vow: Judges 11.29-33
The spirit of the Lord comes upon Jephthah, and he is empowered by it and so goes to face off against the Ammonites. He makes a vow to the Lord: If the Lord delivers the Ammonites into his hand, he will offer as a burnt offering the first person to come out of the doors of his house when he returns home victorious.
Just who does Jephthah expect to come out of his doors? He never says. Perhaps a servant. And when he subdues the Ammonites does his mind still weigh heavy with his vow? The biblical author does not tell us. All we know is that Jephthah is victorious.
Jephthah's Daughter: Judges 11.34-40
Jephthah is greeted by his only child, his daughter, "coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing." He tears his clothes in mourning, realizing the tragedy of the situation. The way he speaks of it deserves analysis:
"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."
The subject-verb-object construction addressing the daughter directly makes the "you have" statements seem accusatory, when it is not really her fault; she did not know about his vow. Yet everything is based on the vow. The vow cannot be revoked, and for this reason Jephthah must kill his daughter.
Jephthah's pious and courageous daughter reassures her father by telling him that he is bound by his vow to the Lord. She only asks that she may go to the mountains with her companions to bewail her virginity (in this culture it was seen as a terrible misfortune to die a virgin). She returns after two months and her father makes good on his vow to the Lord.
This story is apparently etiological; the closing statement of the chapter informs us, "So there arose an Israelite custom that for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite" (Judg. 11.39-40).
Intertribal Dissension: Judges 12.1-7
The Ephraimites come to Jephthah to tell him how incensed they are that the judge did not call them when he fought the Ammonites. [This is not simply an issue of pride, but of land rights as well. The Ephraimites seem to have a history of this, confronting Gideon about nearly the same thing in Judges 8.] Jephthah replies that the Ephraimites were called upon but were not able to deliver Jephthah and the Gileadites from the hand of the Ammonites. There is no biblical record of this, but we must also consider that the biblical author is quite laconic. So who are we to believe?
The smaller group of Gileadites faces off against Ephraim and are able to take the fords of the Jordan, where they develop a clever trick for distinguishing whether men trying to cross are Ephraimite or Gileadite. They tell the man to say "Shibboleth," and if the man mispronounces it as "Sibboleth" he is killed. This points to a dialectical difference between the two groups.
Jephthah judges Israel a total of six years. Whether there is peace after his death, the biblical author does not say.
Jephthah's death raises an interesting issue. The concluding story does not mention Jephthah. Then we are informed of his death, which transitions us into a few minor prophets. The interesting part is that Jephthah's death is written in the same style as the minor judges that follow. In this way Jephthah is both a minor and major prophet. Perhaps his story was expanded upon by the biblical authors?
Intertribal Dissension: Judges 12.8-15
After Jephthah's death, Ibzan of Bethlehem judges Israel. He is pretty big on intermarriage; having his thirty daughters marry outside the clan and having his thirty sons marry women outside the clan. He judges Israel seven years
After him comes Elon the Zebulunite, who judges Israel ten years.
After him comes Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite. He judges Israel eight years.
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