Judges 11

This chapter of Judges begins the story of the judge Jephthah. At the end of Judges 10, the Ammonites had encamped in Gilead, and the princes of Gilead were looking for someone to lead the fight. In this chapter Jephthah is appointed to that role.

Outline

• Verses 1–3: Jephthah, the son of a harlot, is driven out by his half-brothers and settles in the land of Tob. "Vain men," a band of drifters, gather around him.
• Verses 4–11: When the Ammonites invade, the elders of Gilead ask Jephthah to be their captain. Jephthah secures their promise to make him head over Gilead and declares these terms before the LORD at Mizpeh.
• Verses 12–28: The king of the Ammonites claims that when Israel came up out of Egypt, it seized his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan. Jephthah refutes him on three points: Israel went around Edom and Moab; it gained the land by defeating Sihon, king of the Amorites; and for three hundred years no one had tried to reclaim it. The king of the Ammonites refuses to listen.
• Verses 29–33: The Spirit of the LORD comes upon Jephthah. He makes a vow that whatever comes out of the doors of his house to meet him when he returns victorious will be offered as a burnt offering. He then strikes twenty cities, from Aroer to Minnith.
• Verses 34–40: Jephthah's only daughter comes out to meet her father with timbrels and dancing. After spending two months on the mountains bewailing her virginity, she returns, and Jephthah does with her according to his vow. From then on it becomes a custom in Israel for the women to lament the daughter of Jephthah four days each year.

Key Verses

• Judges 11:30–31: "and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." The tragedy of the chapter begins with this vow.
• Judges 11:35: "for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back." Jephthah believed that a vow, once made, could not be retracted.

People and Places

• Jephthah's daughter: Jephthah's only child. She is not named in the text.
• Sihon: The Amorite king of Heshbon. At the time of the Exodus he refused Israel passage, fought against them, and was defeated.
• Balak: The son of Zippor, king of Moab. Jephthah cites him as an example of one who did not fight against Israel.
• Chemosh: The deity Jephthah calls "thy god" when addressing the king of the Ammonites (v. 24). Elsewhere in Scripture he appears as the god of Moab.
• Mizpeh (Mizpah): A place in Gilead where Jephthah's house was located.
• Arnon and Jabbok: The two rivers the Ammonite king claimed as the boundaries of his land.

Points for Reflection

• Was the daughter actually offered as a burnt offering? The text says only that he "did with her according to his vow which he had vowed."
• Jewish tradition, many of the Church Fathers, and many modern commentators read the passage as describing an actual human sacrifice. Since offering a person as a sacrifice was forbidden by the Law, they interpret the episode as illustrating the religious confusion of the period of the judges.
• Some medieval Jewish commentators and some Protestant commentators hold that verse 31 can also be rendered "shall be the LORD's, or I will offer it up for a burnt offering." They interpret the passage to mean that the daughter was not put to death but was dedicated to God and remained unmarried for life, citing her bewailing of her virginity (vv. 37–39) as support.
• Three hundred years: The figure in verse 26 is frequently cited in calculating the chronology of the period of the judges. Some, however, regard it as a round number rather than an exact count of years.
• Connection with the New Testament: Hebrews 11:32 mentions Jephthah by name among the people of faith. Interpreters differ on whether this also amounts to an approval of his vow.

In the Korean Church

The chapter is frequently used in sermons on the seriousness of vows or as a warning against rash vows, and it is often cited together with Ecclesiastes 5:4–5. It is also read as the story of a man rejected because of his origins who was nevertheless used by God as a leader.