Judges 10

10 1 And after Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 3 And after him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty and two years. 4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called 5 Havvoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. 6 And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baalim, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they for- 7 sook the LORD, and served him not. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Am- 8 mon. And they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years oppressed they all the children of Israel that were beyond Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is 9 in Gilead. And the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and 10 against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, even because

11 we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baalim. And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of 12 Ammon, and from the Philistines? The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maon- 13 ites, did oppress you; and ye cried unto me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet ye have 14 forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will save you no more. Go and cry unto 15 the gods which ye have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth 16 good unto thee; only deliver us, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. Verses 17, 18. Gathering of Ammon in Gilead and of Israel in Mizpeh.

11: 1-11. Jephthah, driven out by Gileadites, besought to lead them against the forces of Ammon. They covenant before Jehovah to make him chief over them.

Verses 12-28. Jephthah reasons with the king of Ammon in justification of Israel’s right to the land; but in vain.

29. Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children

30 of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver

31 the children of Ammon into mine hand, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall

32 be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the

33 children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hand. And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto Abel- cheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

34. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither

35 son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble

36 me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for

37 thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down upon the

38 mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her vir-

39 ginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew

40 no man. And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

12: 1-6. The men of Ephraim provoke a conflict with Jephthah, and many are slain.

7. And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

8. And after him Ibzan of Beth-lehem judged Israel. And he had thirty sons, and thirty

9 daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. And

10 he judged Israel seven years. And Ibzan died, and was buried at Beth-lehem.

11. And after him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. And

12. Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

13. And after him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. And he had forty

14 sons and thirty sons’ sons, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel

15 eight years. And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

10: 1-5. Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, of the tribe of Issachar, who dwelt at Shamir, in Mount Ephraim, judged Israel twenty-three years. His judgeship may be regarded as a continuance of the period of quiet obtained by the victories of Gideon. This is true also of the eighth judge, Jair, a man of Gilead, on the east of Jordan, who ruled twenty-two years. P. S.—These forty-five years of comparative rest conclude the second period in the history of the Judges. The third, which commences with fresh apostasy on the part of Israel, includes the rule of Jephthah and his successors—Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon—in the north and east, and of Samson in the south and west. While in the north and east Jephthah encountered the Ammonites, Samson warred against the Philistines in the southwest. The oppression of Ammon over the eastern and northern tribes lasted eighteen years (10 : 8, 9); the rule of Jephthah six years (12 : 7); that of his three successors twenty-five years—covering in all a period of forty-nine years. On the other hand, the oppression of the Philistines lasted in all forty years (13 : 1), during twenty years of which (15 : 20) Samson “began to deliver Israel” (13 : 5), the deliverance being completed only twenty years later under Samuel, when the battle of Ebenezer was gained (1 S. 7). These dates are of great importance, not only on their own account, but because they show us the two parallel streams of Israel’s history in the north and the south. A. E.

6-16. The whole analogy of this period of the history of Israel leaves no doubt that so long an interval of rest would involve a more serious declension than any of those before it. Accordingly we find them serving all the gods of all the nations around them, “Baalim and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of the Beni ammi, and of the Philistines,” except Jehovah; Him they forsook, and served not. This time the punishment was as signal as the crime. Two nations at once attacked Israel on the west and on the east—the Philistines and the children of Ammon. Of the former we shall soon hear again. The oppression of the latter lasted for eighteen years, especially in the land of Gilead, on the east of Jordan. But they also passed the Jordan, and fought against the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, so that Israel was sore distressed. P. S.—Next, we have in verses 10-15 an account of Israel’s humiliation and entreaty at Shiloh, and of the Lord’s answer by the Urim and Thummim. Finally, verse 16 informs us how the genuineness of their repentance appeared not in professions and promises, but in the putting away of all “strange gods,” and that when there was no immediate prospect of Divine help. After this, to reproduce the wonderful imagery of Scripture: “His soul became short on account of the misery of Israel.” A. E.

This is the most remarkable repentance and reformation of which we read in the history of the Judges; and it seems to be so serious that, in the time of the three judges who succeeded

Jephthah, we read nothing of their relapsing into idolatry. As their repentance was sincere, so the expression of the Divine compassion toward them—viz., “that his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel,” is the strongest that we meet with. Stackhouse.

Repentance involves practical amendment. The children of Israel put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord. The genuineness of repentance must be tested by its effects. Repentance is not a mere feeling of grief; it is not seated in the emotions, but in the will. This must manifest itself in conduct. The conduct will be twofold: the giving up of old evil ways, and the commencement of the service of God. Repentance is followed by tokens of God’s mercy. When the people repented God could no longer endure their misery. He never willingly afflicts. He only waits for our repentance to show his compassion. It is possible then because there is no longer the necessity for continued chastisement; the justice and righteousness of God no longer require him to look upon us in wrath; and we shall not be injured by the kindness which falls upon us in our humiliation, but rather healed and strengthened for a better life by the influence of God’s love. W. F. A.

11 : 1-3. The narrative here goes back probably some years, to explain the antecedents of Jephthah, who was about to play so prominent a part in the ensuing history. Jephthah, we learn, was a son of Gilead by a foreign harlot; and when the sons of Gilead’s wife were grown up, they expelled Jephthah, and refused to let him have any share in the inheritance of their father, because he was the son of a foreigner; Jephthah therefore fled from Gilead, and took up his residence in the land of Tob, apparently an Aramean settlement (2 S. 10 : 6, 8), and presumably the land of his mother’s birth, where he became a famous freebooter. There he was at the time of this Ammonite invasion. A. C. H.

5-11. This life of adventure would suit the brave Gileadite and his followers; for he was a wild mountaineer, only imbued with the true spirit of Israel. And now, when war had actually broken out, “the elders of Gilead” were not in doubt whom to choose as their chief. They had seen and repented their sin against Jehovah, and now they saw and confessed their wrong toward Jephthah, and appealed to his generosity. In ordinary circumstances he would not have consented; but he came back to them, as the elders of Gilead had put it, because they were in distress. Nor did he come in his own strength. The agreement made with the elders of Israel was solemnly ratified before Jehovah. A. E.

12-28. Jephthah herein conformed to the rule of conduct prescribed by Moses (De. 20 : 10-18), which was, not to make war with nations out of Canaan, till messengers had been sent with proposals of peace. Though a mighty man of valor, yet he was desirous, if possible, to prevent the effusion of blood by a peaceable accommodation. Bush.—Jephthah acted fairly when he asked the king of the sons of Ammon to state the grounds on which he invaded Israel, and when on his side he refuted that statement by an historical retrospect of the transactions in question. A. C. H.—The sum of Jephthah’s argument, relative to the matter in dispute. The Ammonites had lost their lands in their contests with the Amorites. The Israelites conquered these lands from the Amorites, who had waged an unprincipled war against them. God, the Proprietor and Disposer of heaven and earth, had given these lands by special grant to the Israelites. In consequence of this, they had had possession of them for upward of three hundred years. These lands were never reclaimed by the Ammonites, though they had repeated opportunities to do it, while the Israelites dwelt in Heshbon, in Aroer, and the coasts of Arnon; but they did not reclaim them, because they knew the Israelites held them legally. Consequently every subsequent claim was effectually barred, and the present pretensions of Ammon were unsupported and unjustifiable. Bush.

29. Reasoning and persuasion having failed, Jephthah now appeals to force against Ammon. And in this it appears that he received his commission directly from God. Nothing else can be meant by “then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah.” Divine impulse, Divine wisdom, Divine obligation are all implied. It is no longer a war whose main issues and movements are subject to fallible human conditions; it is really in God’s hands. Mair.

30. As God began the war with Jephthah, in raising up his heart to that pitch of fortitude; so Jephthah began his war at God, in craving victory from him and pouring out his vow to him: his hand took hold of his sword; his heart of God: therefore he whom the Old Testament styles valiant, the New styles faithful; he who is commended for his strength, dares trust in none but the arm of God; “If thou wilt give the Ammonites into my hand.” If Jephthah had not looked upward for his victory, in vain had the Gileadites looked up to him. This is the disposition of all good hearts; they look to their sword or their bow as servants, and while they use them, trust to God. If we could do so in all our businesses we should have both more joy in their success, and less discomfort in their miscarriage. Bp. H.

31. The translation of these words may be, “Shall be the Lord’s, or else I will offer it up for a burnt-offering,” for so the Hebrew particle is often used. The sense of the vow will then be, Whatsoever cometh out of the house to meet me shall be the Lord’s; if it be a human person, servant, etc., it shall be dedicated to his service; or if it be a beast fit to be offered, it shall be offered for a burnt-offering. Pyle, Dr. Wall.

34-40. It has been the subject of endless controversy, whether Jephthah did really offer up his daughter “for a burnt-offering” to the Lord, or only devote her to perpetual virginity, which might be considered as a sacrifice in those times, especially when every woman looked forward to the production of the promised seed. The terms of the vow do not necessarily imply that he really sacrificed her. Human sacrifices were so forbidden by the Jewish law, and declared so abominable to God, that it is scarcely possible to believe Jephthah would have been guilty of so great a crime. Again, the consequence of the vow that “she knew no man,” seems to imply that she was devoted to perpetual virginity; and the excessive lamentations on the occasion may be sufficiently accounted for by the prevailing ideas in those times respecting a state of celibacy. Stackhouse.—The prominence given to her “virginity” as the paramount evil in her case favors the opinion that her doom was not death. It was this that she and her female companions bewailed upon the mountains; this that appears in the record as the consequence of her father’s performing his vow: “She knew no man.” H. C.—That Jephthah could not possibly have sacrificed his daughter, may appear from the following considerations, among others: (1) The sacrifice of children was prohibited by an express law, under pain of death (Le. 26 : 2, 3). (2) No father, merely by his own authority, could put an offending, much less an innocent child to death upon any account, without the sentence of the magistrates and the consent of the people (De. 21 : 18-21). Hales.

It is not expressly stated that she was offered up for a burnt-offering. Instead of saying, as would naturally, on that supposition, have been expected in a transaction of such moment, “He did with her according to his vow, and offered her up for a burnt-offering to the Lord,” the writer simply affirms, “He did to her his vow, and she knew no man;” as if this were intended to be explanatory of the manner in which the doing of the vow was accomplished—viz., by devoting her to a life of celibacy. Why else is this latter circumstance mentioned, but to show wherein the accomplishment of the vow consisted? If she were really put to death, is it not strange that the fact of her death is not once spoken of? But if she were only doomed to a state of perpetual virginity, the reason of the expression is at once obvious. Moreover, such a sentence would come the nearest of any other to the letter of his vow. She would henceforth become dead to the world, and in her perpetual celibacy the line of his posterity become extinct forever. It would therefore almost amount to a positive immolation of her. It does not appear by whose hands such a sacrifice could have been offered. Not by the high priest, or any regular member of the priesthood, for it is incredible that any officiating priest should have tolerated for a moment, in the face of such explicit prohibitions as Moses had given, the oblation of a human sacrifice. And not by Jephthah himself, for this would have been a transgression of the Levitical law, which enjoined that every offering should be made by the hand of the priest, and at the place where the tabernacle and altar stood. This is rendered still more certain by another important circumstance. It will be remembered that the tabernacle was at this time at Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim. Now immediately after the conclusion of the war with the Ammonites, we find Jephthah engaged in a bitter war with the Ephraimites. This makes it in the highest degree improbable that he should, in the very heat of the quarrel, have gone into the heart of that tribe to offer such a sacrifice, even had it been lawful. From all the circumstances, the probability is very strong that Jephthah availed himself of the provisions of the law in respect to devoted persons and things. Vows were encouraged under the law, and besides the cherem or anathema, persons or things might be devoted to God. But where this was the case, the law permitted that a valuation should be made of the devoted person or thing, and that the money should be regarded as a ransom for it, or an offering be presented in its stead. He accordingly, we conceive, consigned her henceforth to a state of perpetual seclusion and celibacy—of living consecration to God—and in this manner “did unto her his vow.” Thus, on the whole, after weighing all the circumstances and all the arguments bearing upon the case, upon the much disputed point whether Jephthah really sacrificed his daughter, the evidence for the negative clearly preponderates. Those who think that she was sacrificed are satisfied with the present version; those who dissent from this, contend earnestly for the marginal rendering, “to talk with”—meaning that the daughters of Israel went yearly to condole with and to comfort her. The evidence for this latter sense of the word is by no means slight, if we refer to the only other instance in which it occurs (Ju. 5 : 11), where though translated “to rehearse,” the idea of colloquy, of mutual address, is clearly involved. This is confirmed by Kimchi, the Jewish commentator, who thus paraphrases the words before us, “That indeed, with their friendly discourse they might comfort her concerning her virginity and her solitary state of life.” Bush.

On general grounds it seems incredible that a man like Jephthah would be guilty of such an offence, not only against humanity, but against God Himself, as the offering of his child in sacrifice would have been; nor can we conceive that in Israel such an act would have been remembered otherwise than with abhorrence and execration (compare 2 K. 3 : 27). Human sacrifices belong to heathenism only in its most degraded and hateful forms, and in Israel they were utterly unknown until they were brought in with the worship of Moloch by some of the wicked kings of Judah, centuries after the time of Jephthah. What adds to the improbability that Jephthah’s daughter was actually offered in sacrifice is the fact that a burnt offering could be offered only on the altar of the Lord at the Tabernacle; and it is incredible that any priest of the Lord would consent to pollute that altar by a sacrifice of a kind denounced in the law of God as one of the most hateful abominations of the heathen (Le. 18 : 21; De. 12 : 31; 18 : 10; 20 : 1-5). W. L. A.

We must dismiss, as irrelevant and untruthful, such pleas as the roughness of those times, the imperfectness of religious development, or that of religious ignorance on the part of the outlaw Jephthah, who had spent most of his life far from Israel. He acts and speaks throughout as a true worshipper of Jehovah. And his vow, which in the Old Testament always expresses the highest religious feeling, is so sacred because it is made to Jehovah. Again, in his embassy to the king of Ammon, Jephthah displays the most intimate acquaintance with the Pentateuch, his language being repeatedly almost a literal quotation from Nu. 20. He who knew so well the details of Scripture history could not have been ignorant of its fundamental principles. Having thus cleared the way, we observe:

1. That the language of Jephthah’s vow implied, from the first, at least the possibility of some human being coming out from the door of his house, to meet him on his return. The original conveys this, and the evident probabilities of the case were strongly in favor of such an eventuality. Indeed, Jephthah’s language seems to have been designedly chosen in such general terms as to cover all cases. But it is impossible to suppose that Jephthah would have deliberately made a vow in which he contemplated human sacrifice; still more so that Jehovah would have connected victory and deliverance with such a horrible crime. 2. In another particular, also, the language of Jephthah’s vow is remarkable. It is, that “the outcoming (whether man or beast) shall be to Jehovah, and I will offer that a burnt-offering.” The great Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages have pointed out that these two last clauses are not identical. It is never said of an animal burnt-offering, that it “shall be to Jehovah”—for the simple reason that, as a burnt-offering, it is such. But where human beings are offered to Jehovah, there the expression is used, as in the case of the first-born among Israel and of Levi (Nu. 3 : 12, 13). But in these cases it has never been suggested that there was actual human sacrifice. 3. It was a principle of the Mosaic law, that burnt sacrifices were to be exclusively males (Le. 1 : 3). 4. If the loving daughter had devoted herself to death, it is next to incredible that she should have wished to spend the two months of life conceded to her, not with her broken-hearted father, but in the mountains with her companions. 5. She bewails not her “maiden age,” but her “maidenhood”—not that she dies so young, but that she is to die unmarried. The Hebrew expression for the former would have been quite different from that used in Scripture, which only signifies the latter. But for an only child to die unmarried, and so to leave a light and name extinguished in Israel, was indeed a bitter and heavy judgment, viewed in the light of pre-Messianic times. Compare in this respect especially such passages as Le. 20 : 20 and Ps. 78 : 63. The trial appears all the more withering when we realize how it must have come upon Jephthah and his only child in the hour of their highest glory, when all earthly prosperity seemed at their command. The greatest and happiest man in Israel becomes in a moment the poorest and the most stricken. Surely in this vow and sacrifice was the lesson of vows and sacrifices taught to victorious Israel in a manner the most solemn. 6. It is very significant that it is only said, that

Jephthah “did with her according to his vow”—not that he actually offered her in sacrifice, while in the latter case the added clause, “and she knew no man,” would be utterly needless and unmeaning. Lastly, we may ask, Who would have been the priest by whom, and where the altar on which, such a sacrifice could have been offered unto Jehovah? On all these grounds—its utter contrariety to the whole Old Testament, the known piety of Jephthah, the blessing following upon his vow, his mention in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but especially the language of the narrative itself—we feel bound to reject the idea of any human sacrifice. A. E.

What she, “a bud not allowed to unfold itself,” and her companions mourned, was her “virginity,” not her being about to be put to death. It would be utterly unnatural that, if she were so soon to die, she his only child should spend two months of her respite far away from her loving father’s home. The final words, “and she knew no man,” would be superfluous, if her sacrificial death were meant, for already it was stated she was a virgin. But the reason of their insertion is clear, when we understand them as explaining the previous clause, “did with her according to his vow.” The sacred historian hereby implies approval of the act, which he would never have bestowed on a literal human sacrifice; contrast his disapproval of a much lighter transgression (8 : 27). Nor would Scripture notice the yearly celebration of the offering of Jephthah’s daughter, if that offering had been one so abhorrent to the law. What the daughters of Israel went yearly to “praise” was her willingness to sacrifice for life her natural aspirations as the conqueror’s daughter, from motives of filial obedience, patriotic devotion, and self-renouncing piety. Literal burnt-offerings could only be offered at the lawful altar, or before the ark of the tabernacle, and by the Levitical priests. These would never have consented to such an unlawful act. And if Jephthah himself offered it upon an altar of his own, the inspired historian would not have termed it a fulfilment of the vow of a burnt-offering to Jehovah, since it would not have been this, but a sacrifice to the bloody idol Moloch. Jephthah had no right to dispose of his daughter’s life without the command of God. Had God commanded him to sacrifice her, which He did not, He would doubtless have interposed to prevent it, as in Isaac’s case. A. R. F.

Conflict with Ephraim.

We have already seen Ephraim’s proud jealousy.

ousy breaking out fiercely in the strife with Gideon, and now again in this hostile attack upon Jephthah. They seem to have thought that they were entitled to be considered first in everything. Their own dignity, and not their country’s good, was their chief concern. Hence, when an unknown Gideon, of one of the inferior houses of Manasseh, or a half-caste Jephthah on the other side Jordan, rose to the first rank as saviours of their country, the envy of Ephraim burst out into a flame. A. C. H.

2. And Jephthah said unto them.** Jephthah’s answer, at once firm but temperate, shows that their charge was as false as malicious; he had called them, and they refused to come. In reality, therefore, he had more cause to condemn them for their indifference to the fate of their brethren than they him for taking the field without them. Reason is very apt to forsake those who renounce right. Bush.

6. Say now Shibboleth.** To find out whether they spake the truth, they put them to the test of pronouncing the word Shibboleth; which the people of Ephraim were accustomed to speak as Sibboleth. This word was chosen, probably, as being fit for the purpose: Shibboleth means floods of water; so that the test to which they put them was this, to make them say, “Let us pass over the waters.” Patrick.

Forty and two thousand. As the Hebrew mode of enumeration is peculiar, the copulative sau here may perhaps imply simply addi-

tion, so that the sum will be 2040 instead of 42,000. At the last census (Nu. 26 : 37), the whole tribe of Ephraim only amounted to 32,500, compared with which the last number appears far too great; especially as it is reasonable to believe that only a part of the tribe crossed the Jordan on this expedition. Bush.

8-15. A bare mention will suffice of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth judges, who came between Jephthah and Samson, Ibzan, of Bethlehem, in Zebulun, judged Israel for seven years, and was buried in Bethlehem. He was succeeded by another Zebulunite, Elon, who judged Israel ten years, and was buried at Aijalon, in Zebulun, which seems to have been named after him. Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, judged Israel for eight years. P. S.

Jephthah’s day of life had been a stormy one indeed. But now there came quiet, uneventful days both for Israel and his rulers. There is no mention of foreign foe or of domestic discord. Scenes of family life take the place of the martial muster and the bloody fight. There is nothing to record save how long the judges judged, when they died, and where they were buried. We infer from the fact that there were judges, the continual care of God for his people, and from the absence of invasion and servitude we infer that the people did not forsake God. A. C. H.

THE ANGEL JEHOVAH APPEARS TO MANOAH’S WIFE. HIS SECOND APPEARANCE AND COLLOQUY WITH MANOAH. BIRTH OF SAMSON. HIS MARRIAGE AND EXPLOITS AGAINST THE PHILISTINES.