Judges 11:11

Then Jephthah went with the elders of Israel,.... From the land of Tob into the land of Gilead, his native country: and the people made him head and captain over them; ratified and confirmed what the

Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh. No JFB commentary on this verse.

Jephthah uttered all his words, objectively so called; i.e. all that was spoken, not only by him, but also by the elders of Gilead concerning him, and concerning this whole transaction, and the conditions of it; or, all his matters, the whole business. Before the Lord, i.e. before the public congregation, wherewith God was usually and then especially present: see . Or, before the altar, which possibly they did erect upon this special occasion, by God’ s permission. Or, in God’ s presence, calling him to be present, as a witness and judge between them.

Judges 11:11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.Ver. 11. Then Jephthah went.] He not only forgave, but forgot all former unkindnesses, burying them all in the love of his country. So did Camillus among the Romans, Themistocles among the Athenians, &c.

(11) The people made him head and captain.—The people ratified the promise of the elders, and solemnly inaugurated him as both the civil and military leader of the Trans-jordanic tribes. Uttered all his words.—It probably means that he took some oath as to the condition of his government. Before the Lord in Mizpeh.—Some have supposed that this must mean that the oath was taken before the Tabernacle or Ark, or Urim and Thummim, because the phrase has this meaning elsewhere (Exodus 34:34; Joshua 18:8; and infra, Judges 20:26; Judges 21:2);—and consequently that the scene of this covenant must be the Western Mizpeh, in Benjamin (Joshua 18:26; 1Ma 3:46, “for in Maspha was the place where they prayed aforetime in Israel”). There are, indeed, no limits to the possible irregularities of these disturbed times, during which the priests seem to have sunk into the completest insignificance. The Ark may therefore have been transferred for a time to Mizpeh, in Benjamin (Judges 20:1), as tradition says. But if that Mizpeh had been meant, it would certainly have been specified, since the Mizpeh of our present narrative (Judges 10:17) is in Gilead. Nor is it at all likely that the High Priest would have carried the sacred Urim into the disturbed and threatened Eastern districts. “Before Jehovah” probably means nothing more than by some solemn religious utterance or ceremony; and Mizpeh in Gilead had its own sacred associations (Genesis 31:48-49).

Verse 11. Jepthah went with the elders] The elders had chosen him for their head; but, to be valid, this choice must be confirmed by the people; therefore, it is said, the people made him head. But even this did not complete the business; God must be brought in as a party to this transaction; and therefore Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord - the terms made with the elders and the people on which he had accepted the command of the army; and, being sure of the Divine approbation, he entered on the work with confidence.

11. The second half of the verse comes awkwardly after the announcement of Jephthah’s promotion; and as it stands his words must refer to Judges 11:9. But would he repeat them to give additional solemnity to the agreement? He would be more likely to make the elders repeat their promise before Jehovah. On the other hand 11b would come in most suitably after Judges 11:31. Accepting the terms offered by the sheikhs (11a), Jephthah makes his vow (Judges 11:30-31) before Jehovah, i.e. before the altar or pillar in the sanctuary or high-place of Mizpah (Judges 11:11 b), and then sets out to attack the Ammonites and defeats them (Judges 11:32-33). We must suppose that the original form of the narrative has been disturbed by the insertion of Jdg 11:12-28. For Mizpah see on Judges 10:17. The section Judges 11:12-28 purports to give an account of Jephthah’s negotiations with the king of Ammon. First comes a formal protest against the Ammonite invasion with a reply (Judges 11:12-13): then the real subject of dispute follows—the occupation of the territory between the Arnon and the Jabbok. After Judges 11:15 the Ammonites drop out to reappear in Judges 11:27-28, and the Moabites, who were the people really concerned with this district, enter the discussion. An appeal is made to past history as recorded in JE’s narrative, Numbers 20:14-18; Numbers 21:21-24. At the period of the Israelite invasion the disputed territory was in the hands of the Amorites, from whom Israel won it by conquest (Judges 11:22); and in it Israel settled down (Judges 11:26). The argument, then, is aimed at the Moabites, not the Ammonites; the deity referred to in Judges 11:24 is Moabite, and so are the cities in Judges 11:26. In fact the whole passage has only a superficial connexion at the beginning and end with Jephthah’s campaign; it looks like an insertion made at some period when Israel wished to put forward a claim to the district, and to judge from the dependence of the passage upon JE’s narrative in Num., this period was later than the 8th century b.c. The territory in question changed masters frequently; Moabites and Amorites, Moabites and Israelites, held it in succession; see Numbers 21:26, 2 Samuel 8:2; Moabite Stone lines 5 ff., Isaiah 15:2 ff., Jeremiah 48:1 ff. The alternative course is to suppose that we have here a combination of two narratives of two campaigns, one against Ammon and the other against Moab; the above explanation, however, seems to involve fewer difficulties.

Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh - This phrase designates the presence of the tabernacle, or the ark, or of the high priest with Urim and Thummim Judges 20:26; Judges 21:2; Joshua 18:8; 1 Samuel 21:7.

11. The people made him head and captain — The elders made the choice, and the people confirmed it by a public election. The distinction between head and captain, if any, is that between civil and military leader and chief.