Judges 11-12: Jephthah (Part II - a rash vow)

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.

Judges 10-11: Jephthah (Part I)

Judges 10: Tola and Jair / Oppression by the Ammonites / Jephthah
Judges 11(a): Jephthah

Abimelech's tenure was something of a mess for Israel. Now a new leader comes to straighten things out.

Tola and Jair: Judges 10.1-5
A brief interlude between Abimelech and Jephthah describes the two intervening judges: Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, of Isaachar judges Israel 23 years. He is succeeded by Jair the Gileadite, who judges Israel 22 years.

Oppression by the Ammonites: Judges 10.6-18
After this interlude, the unfaithfulness cycle picks back up again. Again the Israelites fall into apostasy, worshipping a veritable pantheon of different gods. This kindles the anger of the Lord, who actually "sells" them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites. The Israelites suffer 18 years under them.

As per the unfaithfulness cycle, the Israelites cry out to the Lord and acknowledge their sin. The Lord responds that that he will not deliver them from their oppressors; he has delivered them many times, yet each time they seem to forget him. The Israelites put away their foreign gods and worship the Lord, and finally the Lord's sympathy for Israel wins out.

Jephthah: Judges 11.1-28
Enter Jephthah, a mighty warrior whose mother is a prostitute and whose father is Gilead himself. His half brothers - the sons of Gilead's wife - are not his biggest fans. They drive him out of Gilead to Tob and he becomes an outlaw, raiding with a band of others.

Clearly Jephthah has some military prowess from his raiding experience, because when the Ammonites attack Israel, the elders of Gilead approach him to offer him a job as commander. Jephthah sees this as something of a conspiracy. He responds, "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?" (Judg. 11.7). In fact, it was not they who drove him out, but his brothers. Jephthah smells a conspiracy, and perhaps is not far off, because the elders do not deny their connection. Indeed, they offer him a better position of leader over all of them. Jephthah agrees that if he conquers the Ammonites, he will serve as leader.

Jephthah begins his campaign rather diplomatically by sending a message to the king of the Ammonites asking why he is at war with Israel. The king responds that Israel took his land (Moabite territory) upon their exodus from Egypt. Jephthah succinctly recounts the wandering in the desert, and asserts that in fact Israel did not take the land of the Moabites. Rather, they conquered the Amorites, a divine act of the Lord. And, in fact, they lived in the territory 300 years, during which time the Ammonites did not attempt to conquer the land. Jephthah asks rhetorically if the king possesses land that his god Chemosh has given. But the king does not listen, and continues his conquest against Israel.