058. XXXVIII. Jephthah’s Victory Over The Ammonites
§ XXXVIII. JEPHTHAH’S VICTORY OVER THE AMMONITES Judges 11, Judges 12:1-6
1. Jephthah’s early history. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a very valiant warrior; and he was the son of a harlot; and when his father’s sons by another wife grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and there gathered worthless fellows about him, and they used to go out on forays with him.
2. Request of his Gileadite clansmen. And after a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah out of the land of Tob, and they said to Jephthah, Come be our chief, that we may fight against the Ammonites. But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, are you not the men who hated me and drove me out of my father’s house? Why then do you come to me now when you are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites; and you shall be our chief, even over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
3. His terms. Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites, and Jehovah gives them over to me, shall I be your chief? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Jehovah shall be a witness between us; we swear to do just as you say. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them.
4. His vow. Then the spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah, and he passed over to Gilead and Manasseh. And the Ammonites were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And Jephthah made a vow to Jehovah, and said, If thou wilt deliver the Ammonites wholly into my hand, then whoever comes from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be Jehovah’s, and I will offer that one as a burnt-offering.
5. His victory. So Jephthah went over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and Jehovah delivered them into his hand.
6. His return. And when Jephthah came home to Mizpah his daughter was just coming out to meet him with tambourines and dances; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And when he saw her he rent his garments and said, O my daughter! you have stricken me to earth: Yea, you are the cause of my woe! for, as for me, I have made a solemn promise to Jehovah, and cannot go back. And she said to him, My father, you have made a solemn promise to Jehovah; do to me what you have solemnly promised, inasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.
7. Fulfilment of his vow. And she said to her father, Let this privilege be granted me: spare me two months, that I may depart, and go out upon the mountains, and lament together with my companions, because of my maidenhood. And he said, Go. So he sent her away for two months and she departed together with her companions, and lamented on the mountains because of her maidenhood. And at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed to do, she never having known a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel: yearly the daughters of Israel go four days in the year, to bewail the death of the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
8. Attack and defeat of the Ephraimites. And the men of Ephraim assembled, and crossed to Zaphon; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over your head. But Jephthah said to them, I and my people were parties to a great contest with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not deliver me from their power. So when I saw that you were not going to help me, I took my life in my hand, and passed over against the Ammonites, and Jehovah delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up against me to-day, to make war on me? Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim.
9. The test and fate of the fugitives. And the Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan to intercept the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim would say, Let me cross, the men of Gilead would say to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No, they would command him, Then say, ‘shibboleth.’ And if he said ‘sibboleth,’ and did not pronounce it exactly right, then they would lay hold on him, and slay him at the fords of the Jordan.
I. The Rôle of the East=Jordan Tribes. The deep valley of the Jordan cut off the Eastern tribes so completely that, until the days of Saul and David, these different branches of the Hebrew race had little in common. After the initial stages of the conquest, the tribes of Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh settled down to work out inde pendently their individual problems. On the west they were protected by natural barriers and by their kinsmen in Canaan; but from the east came the constant pressure of invasion. Throughout most of their history the Hebrews found a strong and aggressive foe in the Ammonites. The rich territory of Gilead east of the middle Jordan was also an at tractive goal to the peoples living further east on the borders of the desert. Ordinarily the advance was gradual; but sometimes the invaders united in a general attack.
II. Jephthah, the Gileadite. The story of Jephthah sheds for a brief period clear light upon the condition of these Gileadite tribes. Driven from his home as a youth by his kinsmen, he had gathered about him a sturdy band of outlaws Disorganized conditions and the almost constant state of warfare between the different tribes enabled him to subsist by means of frequent forays. His prestige became in time so great that the elders of Gilead, threatened by a determined Ammonite attack, in desperation recalled Jephthah. If successful, they promised to recognize him henceforth as their chief.
III. Jephthah’s Vow and its Consequences. Rough warrior that he was, Jephthah was nevertheless a worshipper of Jehovah. On the eve of battle he made a solemn compact with Jehovah that, if he re turned victorious, he would offer as a burnt-offering the first one who came to meet him. Later, under somewhat the same conditions, Saul made a similar vow (§ XLII). The vow is characteristic of the early Semitic religions, and the supreme gift that a man could offer to the Deity was the life of a human being. The story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac reflects the same popular belief and the protest of later and more enlightened prophets (cf. § X 1). The significant fact is that the ancient narrator makes no protest against Jephthah’s vow or its execution. He simply brings out, with dramatic vividness, the pathos of the scene, as the conqueror returns, flushed with victory, to be met by his daughter, his only child. In the thought of the early age, the calamity was the greater, because her untimely death deprived Jephthah of all hope of descendants. The solemn lamentation, observed each year by the east-Jordan maidens in memory of the event, undoubtedly kept alive the tradition of Jephthah’s victories until it passed into the keeping of the early prophetic historians.
IV. Hostility between the East and West-Jordan Tribes. The story of Jephthah is significant, for it tells of the founding of a petty Hebrew kingdom east of the Jordan. The sequel to the account of Jephthah’s victory reveals, however, the jealousy and frequent wars that were waged during this period of settlements between even the Hebrew tribes themselves. The powerful central tribe of Ephraim was evidently envious of the victory and authority of Jephthah. This envy developed into a constant state of hostility. The fords of the Jordan were the scene of many petty conflicts. Any Ephraimite captured east of the Jordan was in danger of losing his life. The inability of a stranger to pronounce correctly the test word shibboleth, and thus prove that he was not an Ephraimite has given to literature one of its most familiar figures.
V. The Character of the Local Deliverers. Jephthah well illus trates the real nature of the local deliverers, whose brave deeds are the chief events of this period of settlement and conquest. Their standards are those of the rude age in which they lived. Self interest and tribal loyalty are the chief motives which actuate them. They are local chieftains, possessed of unusual courage or daring, whom the needs of the hour call to positions of conspicuous leadership. Their authority is but local and transient. In addition to the five or six whose exploits have been recorded by tradition, there were probably many others of lesser fame. The names of certain of these local heroes and deliverers have been preserved by the compiler of the book of Judges. To this list belong Ibzan of Bethlehem, Elon the Zebulunite and Abdon the Pirathonite. Although their deeds were often cruel and their interests selfish and local, each of these deliverers was loyal to the God of his race and clearly regarded himself as the agent of the Deity in carrying on the wars of deliverance. While their faith was narrow, it was intense, as is shown by Jephthah’s sacrifice even of his only child. Later experiences and later prophets were needed to broaden the religion of Israel, until, with its splendid spirit of devotion, it should become a commanding force in the life of humanity.