Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 11:29
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 of Ammon.
29. An editorial hand has attempted to pick up the thread of the narrative after the long interpolation, Jdg 11:12-28. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon J. may well have stood originally at the beginning of Jdg 11:32; for elsewhere the access of the divine spirit takes effect at once in a deed of strength or daring (Jdg 3:10 n.), and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh must refer to Jephthah’s efforts to rouse the tribes E. and W. of Jordan (Jdg 12:2); but according to Jdg 10:17 the Israelites are already assembled; the reference comes too late here. and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead; Jephthah, however, has not left Mizpah, where he made his vow ( Jdg 11:11 ; Jdg 11:30). The last clause can only be rendered he passed over the children of A., an incorrect expression; the sentence occurs in its proper place and form in Jdg 11:32. The poor style of the verse (note the repetitions) betrays its character.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then the Spirit of the Lord … – This was the sanctification of Jephthah for his office of Judge and savior of Gods people Israel. Compare Jdg 6:34; Jdg 13:25. The declaration is one of the distinctive marks which stamp this history as a divine history.
The geography is rather obscure, but the sense seems to be that Jephthah first raised all the inhabitants of Mount Gilead; then he crossed the Jabbok into Manasseh, and raised them; then he returned at the head of his new forces to his own camp at Mizpeh to join the troops he had left there; and thence at the head of the whole army marched against the Ammonites, who occupied the southern parts of Gilead.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah] The Lord qualified him for the work he had called him to do, and thus gave him the most convincing testimony that his cause was good.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah; endued him with a more than ordinary courage and resolution.
Manasseh, i.e. Bashan, which the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan, inhabited, Jos 20:8; 21:6.
Mizpeh of Gilead; so called, to distinguish it from other cities of that name. Having gathered what forces he suddenly could, he came hither to the borders of the Ammonites.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29, 30. Then the Spirit of the Lordcame upon JephthahThe calm wisdom, sagacious forethought, andindomitable energy which he was enabled to display, were a pledge tohimself and a convincing evidence to his countrymen, that he wasqualified by higher resources than his own for the momentous dutiesof his office.
he passed over Gilead, andManassehthe provinces most exposed and in danger, for thepurpose of levying troops, and exciting by his presence a widespreadinterest in the national cause. Returning to the camp at Mizpeh, hethen began his march against the enemy. There he made his celebratedvow, in accordance with an ancient custom for generals at theoutbreak of a war, or on the eve of a battle, to promise the god oftheir worship a costly oblation, or dedication of some valuablebooty, in the event of victory. Vows were in common practice alsoamong the Israelites. They were encouraged by the divine approval asemanating from a spirit of piety and gratitude; and rules were laiddown in the law for regulating the performance. But it is difficultto bring Jephthah’s vow within the legitimate range (see on Le27:28).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah,…. The spirit of strength, as the Targum; of fortitude of mind, of uncommon valour and courage, and of zeal for God and Israel, and against their enemies; such a spirit as used to be given to men, when they were in an extraordinary manner raised up by the Lord, to be judges, saviours, and deliverers of his people; so that as Jephthah was before chosen by the people to be the general and head of the tribes beyond Jordan, he was raised up and qualified by the Lord now to be the judge of all Israel; of which the Spirit of the Lord coming on him was a sufficient proof and evidence:
and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh; the countries that belonged to Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; however, all that part of it which lay from the place where he was, to the land of the children of Ammon:
and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead; which lay to the north of the land of Gilead, or tribe of Gad:
and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon; did not stay for them, to bring on the war in the land of Gilead, but prevented it by carrying it into the land of the children of Ammon. It seems by this, that though the children of Ammon had encamped in Gilead some time before, Jud 10:17, yet for some reason or another they had decamped, and had retired into their own country; but yet threatening Israel with a war, and preparing for it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jephthah’s Victory over the Ammonites. – As the negotiations with the king of the Ammonites were fruitless, Jephthah had no other course left than to appeal to the sword.
Jdg 11:29 In the power of the Spirit of Jehovah which came upon him (see Jdg 3:10), he passed through Gilead (the land of the tribes of Reuben and Gad between the Arnon and the Jabbok) and Manasseh (northern Gilead and Bashan, which the half tribe of Manasseh had received for a possession), to gather together an army to battle, and then went with the assembled army to Mizpeh-Gilead, i.e., Ramoth-mizpeh, where the Israelites had already encamped before his call (Jdg 10:17), that he might thence attach the Ammonites. (to pass over) with an accusative signifies to come over a person in a hostile sense.
Jdg 11:30-31 Before commencing the war, however, he vowed a vow to the Lord: “ If Thou givest the Ammonites into my hand, he who cometh to meet me out of the doors of my house, when I return safely (in peace, shalom) from the Ammonites, shall belong to the Lord, and I will offer him for a burnt-offering.” By the words , “he that goeth out,” even if Jephthah did not think “only of a man, or even more definitely still of some one of his household,” he certainly could not think in any case of a head of cattle, or one of his flock. “Going out of the doors of his house to meet him” is an expression that does not apply to a herd or flock driven out of the stall just at the moment of his return, or to any animal that might possibly run out to meet him. For the phrase is only applied to men in the other passages in which it occurs.
(Note: Augustine observes in his Quaest. xlix. in l. Jud.: “He did not vow in these words that he would offer some sheep, which he might present as a holocaust, according to the law. For it is not, and was not, a customary thing for sheep to come out to meet a victorious general returning from the war. Nor did he say, I will offer as a holocaust what ever shall come out of the doors of my house to meet me; but he says, ‘ Who ever comes out, I will offer him;’ so that there can be no doubt whatever that he had then a human being in his mind.”)
Moreover, Jephthah no doubt intended to impose a very difficult vow upon himself. And that would not have been the case if he had merely been thinking of a sacrificial animal. Even without any vow, he would have offered, not one, but many sacrifices after obtaining a victory.
(Note: “What kind of vow would it be if some great prince or general should say, ‘O God, if Thou wilt give me this victory, the first calf that meets me shall be Thine!’ Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus! ” – Pfeiffer, dubia vex. p. 356.)
If therefore he had an animal sacrifice in his mind, he would certainly have vowed the best of his flocks. From all this there can be no doubt that Jephthah must have been thinking of some human being as at all events included in his vow; so that when he declared that he would dedicate that which came out of his house to meet him, the meaning of the vow cannot have been any other than that he would leave the choice of the sacrifice to God himself. “In his eagerness to smite the foe, and to thank God for it, Jephthah could not think of any particular object to name, which he could regard as great enough to dedicate to God; he therefore left it to accident, i.e., to the guidance of God, to determine the sacrifice. He shrank from measuring what was dearest to God, and left this to God himself” ( P. Cassel in Herzog’s Real-encycl.). Whomsoever God should bring to meet him, he would dedicate to Jehovah, and indeed, as is added afterwards by way of defining it more precisely, he would offer him to the Lord as a burnt-offering. The before is to be taken as explanatory, and not as disjunctive in the sense of “ or,” which never has. But whether Jephthah really thought of his daughter at the time, cannot be determined either in the affirmative or negative. If he did, he no doubt hoped that the Lord would not demand this hardest of all sacrifices.
Jdg 11:32-33 After seeking to ensure the help of the Lord by this vow, he went against the Ammonites to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hand, so that Jephthah smote them in a very great slaughter “from Aror (or Nahr Ammn; see Jdg 11:26) to the neighbourhood of (’till thou come to;’ see at Gen 10:19) Minnith, (conquering and taking) twenty cities, and to Abel Keramim (of the vineyards).” Minnith, according to the Onom. ( s. v. Mennith), was a place called Manith in the time of Eusebius, four Roman miles from Heshbon on the road to Philadelphia, with which the account given by Buckingham of the ruins of a large city a little to the east of Heshbon may be compared (see v. Raum. Pal. p. 265). The situation of Abel Keramim (plain of the vineyards: Luther and Eng. Ver.) cannot be determined with the same certainty. Eusebius and Jerome mention two places of this name ( Onom. s. v. Abel vinearum), a villa Abela vinetis consita ( ) seven Roman miles from Philadelphia, and a civitas nomine Abela vini fertilis twelve Roman miles to the east of Gadara, and therefore in the neighbourhood of the Mandhur. Which of the two is referred to here remains uncertain, as we have no precise details concerning the battle. If the northern Abela should be meant, Jephthah would have pursued the foe first of all towards the south to the neighbourhood of Heshbon, and then to the north to the border of Bashan. Through his victory the Ammonites were completely subdued before the Israelites.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Jephthah’s Vow. | B. C. 1143. |
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 of Ammon. 30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 31 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, shall surely be the LORD‘s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. 33 And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minneth, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus 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 son nor daughter. 35 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 me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. 36 And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 37 And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. 38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 39 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 no man. And it was a custom in Israel, 40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
We have here Jephthah triumphing in a glorious victory, but, as an alloy to his joy, troubled and distressed by an unadvised vow.
I. Jephthah’s victory was clear, and shines very brightly, both to his honour and to the honour of God, his in pleading and God’s in owning a righteous cause. 1. God gave him an excellent spirit, and he improved it bravely, v. 29. When it appeared by the people’s unanimous choice of him for their leader that he had so clear a call to engage, and by the obstinate deafness of the king of Ammon to the proposals of accommodation that he had so just a cause to engage in, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and very much advanced his natural faculties, enduing him with power from on high, and making him more bold and more wise than ever he had been, and more fired with a holy zeal against the enemies of his people. Hereby God confirmed him in his office, and assured him of success in his undertaking. Thus animated, he loses no time, but with an undaunted resolution takes the field. Particular notice is taken of the way by which he advanced towards the enemy’s camp, probably because the choice of it was an instance of that extraordinary discretion with which the Spirit of the Lord had furnished him; for those who sincerely walk after the Spirit shall be led forth the right way. 2. God gave him eminent success, and he bravely improved that too (v. 32): The Lord delivered the Ammonites into his hand, and so gave judgment upon the appeal in favour of the righteous cause, and made those feel the force of war that would not yield to the force of reason; for he sits in the throne, judging right. Jephthah lost not the advantages given him, but pursued and completed his victory. Having routed their forces in the field, he pursued them to their cities, where he put to the sword all he found in arms, so as utterly to disable them from giving Israel any molestation, v. 33. But it does not appear that he utterly destroyed the people, as Joshua had destroyed the devoted nations, nor that he offered to make himself master of the country, though their pretensions to the land of Israel might have given him colour to do so: only he took care that they should be effectually subdued. Though others’ attempting wrong to us will justify us in the defence of our own right, yet it will not authorize us to do them wrong.
II. Jephthah’s vow is dark, and much in the clouds. When he was going out from his own house upon this hazardous undertaking, in prayer to God for his presence with him he makes a secret but solemn vow or religious promise to God, that, if God would graciously bring him back a conqueror, whosoever or whatsoever should first come out of his house to meet him it should be devoted to God, and offered up for a burnt-offering. At his return, tidings of his victory coming home before him, his own and only daughter meets him with the seasonable expressions of joy. This puts him into a great confusion; but there was no remedy: after she had taken some time to lament her own infelicity, she cheerfully submitted to the performance of his vow. Now,
1. There are several good lessons to be learnt out of this story. (1.) That there may be remainders of distrust and doubting even in the hearts of true and great believers. Jephthah had reason enough to be confident of success, especially when he found the Spirit of the Lord come upon him, and yet, now that it comes to the settling, he seems to hesitate (v. 30): If thou wilt without fail deliver them into my hand, then I will do so and so. And perhaps the snare into which his vow brought him was designed to correct the weakness of his faith, and a fond conceit he had that he could not promise himself a victory unless he proffered something considerable to be given to God in lieu of it. (2.) That yet it is very good, when we are in the pursuit or expectation of any mercy, to make vows to God of some instance of acceptable service to him, not as a purchase of the favour we desire, but as an expression of our gratitude to him and the deep sense we have of our obligations to render according to the benefit done to us. The matter of such a singular vow (Lev. xxvii. 2) must be something that has a plain and direct tendency either to the advancement of God’s glory, and the interests of his kingdom among men, or to the furtherance of ourselves in his service, and in that which is antecedently our duty. (3.) That we have great need to be very cautious and well advised in the making of such vows, lest, by indulging a present emotion even of pious zeal, we entangle our own consciences, involve ourselves in perplexities, and are forced at last to say before the angel that it was an error, Eccl. v. 2-6. It is a snare to a man hastily to devour that which is holy, without due consideration quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent–what we are able or unable to effect, and without inserting the needful provisos and limitations which might prevent the entanglement, and then after vows to make the enquiry which should have been made before, Prov. xx. 25. Let Jephthah’s harm be our warning in this matter. See Deut. xxiii. 22. (4.) That what we have solemnly vowed to God we must conscientiously perform, if it be possible and lawful, though it be ever so difficult and grievous to us. Jephthah’s sense of the powerful obligation of his vow must always be ours (v. 35): “I have opened my mouth unto the Lord in a solemn vow, and I cannot go back,” that is, “I cannot recall the vow myself, it is too late, nor can any power on earth dispense with it, or give me up my bond.” The thing was my own, and in my own power (Acts v. 4), but now it is not. Vow and pay, Ps. lxxvi. 11. We deceive ourselves if we think to mock God. If we apply this to the consent we have solemnly given, in our sacramental vows, to the covenant of grace made with poor sinners in Christ, what a powerful argument will it be against the sins we have by those vows bound ourselves out from, what a strong inducement to the duties we have hereby bound ourselves up to, and what a ready answer to every temptation! “I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot go back; I must therefore go forward. I have sworn, and I must, I will, perform it. Let me not dare to play fast and loose with God.” (5.) That it well becomes children obediently and cheerfully to submit to their parents in the Lord, and particularly to comply with their pious resolutions for the honour of God and the keeping up of religion in their families, though they be harsh and severe, as the Rechabites, who for many generations religiously observed the commands of Jonadab their father in forbearing wine, and Jephthah’s daughter here, who, for the satisfying of her father’s conscience, and for the honour of God and her country, yielded herself as one devoted (v. 36): “Do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; I know I am dear to thee, but am well content that God should be dearer.” The father might disallow any vow made by the daughter (Num. xxx. 5), but the daughter could not disallow or disannul, no, not such a vow as this, made by the father. This magnifies the law of the fifth commandment. (6.) That our friends’ grievances should be our griefs. Where she went to bewail her hard fate the virgins, her companions, joined with her in her lamentations, v. 38. With those of her own sex and age she used to associate, who no doubt, now that her father had on a sudden grown so great, expected, shortly after his return, to dance at her wedding, but were heavily disappointed when they were called to retire to the mountains with her and share in her griefs. Those are unworthy the name of friends that will only rejoice with us, and not weep with us. (7.) That heroic zeal for the honour of God and Israel, though alloyed with infirmity and indiscretion, is worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance. It well became the daughters of Israel by an annual solemnity to preserve the honourable memory of Jephthah’s daughter, who made light even of her own life like a noble heroine, when God had taken vengeance on Israel’s enemies, v. 36. Such a rare instance of one that preferred the public interest before life itself was never to be forgotten. Her sex forbade her to follow to the war, and so to expose her life in battle, in lieu of which she hazards it much more (and perhaps apprehended that she did so, having some intimation of his vow, and did it designedly; for he tells her, v. 35, Thou hast brought me very low) to grace his triumphs. So transported was she with the victory as a common benefit that she was willing to be herself offered up as a thank-offering for it, and would think her life well bestowed when laid down on so great an occasion. She thinks it an honour to die, not as a sacrifice of atonement for the people’s sins (that honour was reserved for Christ only), but as a sacrifice of acknowledgment for the people’s mercies. (8.) From Jephthah’s concern on this occasion, we must learn not to think it strange if the day of our triumphs in this world prove upon some account or other the day of our griefs, and therefore must always rejoice with trembling; we hope for a day of triumph hereafter which will have no alloy.
2. Yet there are some difficult questions that do arise upon this story which have very much employed the pens of learned men. I will say but little respecting them, because Mr. Poole has discussed them very fully in his English annotations.
(1.) It is hard to say what Jephthah did to his daughter in performance of his vow. [1.] Some think he only shut her up for a nun, and that it being unlawful, according to one part of his vow (for they make it disjunctive), to offer her up for a burnt-offering, he thus, according to the other part, engaged her to be the Lord’s, that is, totally to sequester herself from all the affairs of this life, and consequently from marriage, and to employ herself wholly in the acts of devotion all her days. That which countenances this opinion is that she is said to bewail her virginity (Jdg 11:37; Jdg 11:38) and that she knew no man, v. 39. But, if he sacrificed her, it was proper enough for her to bewail, not her death, because that was intended to be for the honour of God, and she would undergo it cheerfully, but that unhappy circumstance of it which made it more grievous to her than any other, because she was her father’s only child, in whom he hoped his name and family would be built up, that she was unmarried, and so left no issue to inherit her father’s honour and estate; therefore it is particularly taken notice of (v. 34) that besides her he had neither son nor daughter. But that which makes me think Jephthah did not go about thus to satisfy his vow, or evade it rather, is that we do not find any law, usage, or custom, in all the Old Testament, which does in the least intimate that a single life was any branch or article of religion, or that any person, man or woman, was looked upon as the more holy, more the Lord’s, or devoted to him, for living unmarried: it was no part of the law either of the priests or of the Nazarites. Deborah and Huldah, both prophetesses, are both of them particularly recorded to have been married women. Besides, had she only been confined to a single life, she needed not to have desired these two months to bewail it in: she had her whole life before her to do that, if she saw cause. Nor needed she to take such a sad leave of her companions; for those that are of that opinion understand what is said in v. 40 of their coming to talk with her, as our margin reads it, four days in a year. Therefore, [2.] It seems more probable that he offered her up for a sacrifice, according to the letter of his vow, misunderstanding that law which spoke of persons devoted by the curse of God as if it were to be applied to such as were devoted by men’s vows (Lev. xxvii. 29, None devoted shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death), and wanting to be better informed of the power the law gave him in this case to redeem her. Abraham’s attempt to offer up Isaac perhaps encouraged him, and made him think, if God would not accept this sacrifice which he had vowed, he would send an angel to stay his hand, as he did Abraham’s. If she came out designedly to be made a sacrifice, as who knows but she might? perhaps he thought that would make the case the plainer. Volenti non sit injuria–No injury is done to a person by that to which he himself consents. He imagined, it may be, that where there was neither anger nor malice there was no murder, and that his good intention would sanctify this bad action; and, since he had made such a vow, he thought better to kill his daughter than break his vow, and let Providence bear the blame, that brought her forth to meet him.
(2.) But, supposing that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter, the question is whether he did well. [1.] Some justify him in it, and think he did well, and as became one that preferred the honour of God before that which was dearest to him in this world. He is mentioned among the eminent believers who by faith did great things, Heb. xi. 32. And this was one of the great things he did. It was done deliberately, and upon two months’ consideration and consultation. He is never blamed for it by any inspired writer. Though it highly exalts the paternal authority, yet it cannot justify any in doing the like. He was an extraordinary person. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Many circumstances, now unknown to us, might make this altogether extraordinary, and justify it, yet not so as that it might justify the like. Some learned men have made this sacrifice a figure of Christ the great sacrifice: he was of unspotted purity and innocency, as she a chaste virgin; he was devoted to death by his Father, and so made a curse, or an anathema, for us; he submitted himself, as she did, to his Father’s will: Not as I will, but as thou wilt. But, [2.] Most condemn Jephthah; he did ill to make so rash a vow, and worse to perform it. He could not be bound by his vow to that which God had forbidden by the letter of the sixth commandment: Thou shalt not kill. God had forbidden human sacrifices, so that it was (says Dr. Lightfoot) in effect a sacrifice to Moloch. And, probably, the reason why it is left dubious by the inspired penman whether he sacrificed her or no was that those who did afterwards offer their children might not take any encouragement from this instance. Concerning this and some other such passages in the sacred story, which learned men are in the dark, divided, and in doubt about, we need not much perplex ourselves; what is necessary to our salvation, thanks be to God, is plain enough.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Jephthah’s Vow and Victory, vs. 29-33
In verse 29 is seen an instance of Old Testament enduement of the Holy Spirit. In contrast to the constant enduement of the Lord’s churches by the Spirit today, the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times endued individuals on specific occasions for specific purposes. This does not mean that Jephthah was not saved, or a servant of the Lord before, but that he was God’s man to lead Israel against the Ammonites, and the Spirit came on him to insure the victory.
The Spirit moved Jephthah to go about the lands of Gilead and Manasseh gathering together the men he would need in the battle. The point of embarkation for the battle was Mizpeh in Gilead, where the meetings had been held. It was at this point that Jephthah swore the vow to the Lord which is the thing for which he is most often remembered. The vow was to offer up as a burnt offering whatever first came out from his house when he returned victorious over the Ammonites. More will be said about this below.
The Lord gave Jephthah and Israel a total victory. The Ammonites were smitten from Aroer, down on the Arnon river in southern Reuben, all the way to Minnith, in Ammon itself, the exact location of which is now unknown. Twenty cities were smitten, and there was a great slaughter of Ammonites to the plain of the vineyards, which is the translation of a place name in Hebrew. The Ammonites were totally subdued.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jephthahs Vow Jdg. 11:29-31
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 of Ammon.
30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
31 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, shall surely be the Lords, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
13.
In what way did the Spirit of the Lord come upon Jephthah? Jdg. 11:29
Jephthah was not only sought by the elders of Gilead, but his position of leadership was attested by his receiving charismatic gifts. He was not only willing to be the captain of the people, but he appears to have been led by the Spirit of the Lord. Since his agreement with the elders had been sworn to and Jephthah had uttered his convictions before the Lord, we view Jephthah as being a man who was guided of God. This does not mean that he was blameless in character. It also does not signify that he had all the gifts which were given to the apostles in the New Testament when they were baptized of the Holy Spirit. It does signify surely that Jephthah was Gods man for the time in Israel.
14.
What was Jephthahs vow? Jdg. 11:30-31
It is most important for the Bible student to dig deeply into the text at this point. Many ramifications of the situation are seen immediately. A question rises in the Bible students mind as he asks himself if it is possible for a man like Jephthah to have in mind the making of a human sacrifice. Then consideration must be given to the possibility of Gods giving victory to a man who has such a sordid and cruel concept of sacrifice. The Bible does not say expressly that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter; it simply says that he did with her according to his vow (Jdg. 11:39). The language of the vow is double in implication. Jephthah says whatever comes out will be the Lords and he will offer it as a burnt offering. It would be possible for him to offer his daughter in perpetual service to the Lord, and that would be essentially the same as making a burnt offering. If he did have in mind the possibility of his offering a sacrifice, some students of the text indicate the conjunction and might be also translated or. Then the vow would indicate whatever came out would be the Lords if it were human; or if it were animal, he would offer it as a burnt offering.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(29) The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.A weaker expression is used than that which is applied to Gideon in Jdg. 6:34. It implies, as R. Tanchum rightly says, that he was endowed with the courage and wisdom without which success would have been impossible. The phrase no more involves a complete inspiration of Jephthah than it does in the case of Samson; nor is it meant to imply the least approval of many of his subsequent actions. It furnished the power which he needed to work out the deliveranceand that only. To hold up characters like Jephthah and Samson as religious examples, except (as is done in Heb. 11:32) in the one special characteristic of faith displayed at memorable crises, is to sacrifice the whole spirit of Scripture to the mis-interpretation of a phrase.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(29) He passed over Gilead and Manasseh.Rather, he went through (Vulg., circuiens). His object clearly was to collect levies and rouse the tribesHe swept through the land from end to end to kindle the torch of war and raise the population (Ewald).
Passed over Mizpeh.Perhaps, as in the next clause, to Mizpeh.
Passed over unto the children of Ammon.i.e., went to attack them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JEPTHTHAH’S VICTORY AND VOW, Jdg 11:29-40.
29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah He was roused and fired for his warlike work by an extraordinary supernatural influence from on high. But this must not be imagined identical with the New Testament gift of the Holy Ghost, and thence twisted to show that Jephthah’s rash vow was uttered under divine inspiration, and therefore pleasing in the sight of God. Note, Jdg 3:10. Passed over Gilead and Manasseh for the purpose of collecting troops and necessaries for the war. Gilead and Manasseh are here to be taken as a name for the territory of the trans-Jordanic tribes.
Mizpeh of Gilead See note on Jdg 10:17. Having collected his warriors, Jephthah passed over the lofty eminence on which Mizpeh was situated, and soon came to the border of the children of Ammon, between whom and himself the Lord was to decide that day. Jdg 11:27. From the heights of Mizpeh the whole camp of the enemy was visible, spread over the beautiful knolls of the undulating plateau towards Rabbah. The sight fired the soul of Jephthah, and led him to utter his rash vow.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.’
Jephthah was now taken possession of by Yahweh, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh (not necessarily in person) gathering further troops to join those already gathered in Mizpeh (Jdg 10:17). Jdg 12:2 may also indicate that he sent a summons to the tribal confederacy. Then he reviewed his army at Mizpeh of Gilead and was satisfied. So then he set off with his men and his army to face the Ammonites.
Alternately it may be that the troops that had gathered at Mizpah (Jdg 10:17) had returned home to see to their fields and flocks when no leader was forthcoming, and thus had now to be re-gathered.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jephthah, after his Victory, Keeps His Vow
v. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, v. 30. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If Thou shalt without fail, v. 31. 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, v. 32. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands.
v. 33. And he smote them from Aroer, v. 34. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels, v. 35. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, v. 36. And she said unto him, v. 37. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, v. 38. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains v. 39. 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, v. 40. that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jdg 11:29
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, as upon Othniel, upon Gideon, and upon Samson (Jdg 3:16; Jdg 6:34; Jdg 13:25; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 15:14). He passed over, i.e. he went all through, Gilead, and Manasseh,for the purpose, no doubt, of collecting forces,and passed over Mizpeh. It should be to Mizpeh. Mizpeh was the capital and mustering place of his army, and his base of operations (Jdg 10:17; Jdg 11:11, note). Having organised his forces at Mizpeh of Gilead, he passed over to the children of Ammon, i.e. commenced his attack upon the invaders, as it is stated in verse 32, which takes up the thread of the narrative.
Jdg 11:30, Jdg 11:31
And Jephthah vowed a vow. This verse and the following go back to relate something which preceded his passing over to the children of Ammon, viz; his rash and unhappy vow. This is related, as so many things in Scripture are, without note or comment, and the reader must pass his own sentence upon the deed. That sentence can only be one of unreserved con- detonation on the part of any one acquainted with the spirit and letter of the word of God. Many attempts have been made to show that Jephthah only contemplated the offering of an animal in sacrifice; but the natural and indeed necessary interpretation of the words shows that he had a human victim in mind. He could not expect any but a human being to come forth from the doors of his house, nor could any but a human being come forth “to meet him”a common phrase always spoken of men (Gen 14:17; Gen 24:65; Exo 4:14; Exo 18:7; Num 20:20; 1Sa 25:34, etc; and below in 1Sa 25:34). Obviously, in the greatness of his danger and the extreme hazard of his undertaking (Jdg 12:3), he thought to propitiate God’s favour by a terrible and extraordinary vow. But if we ask how Jephthah came to have such erroneous notions of the character of God, the answer is not far to seek. Jephthah was “the son of a strange woman,” probably, as we have seen, a Syrian (Jdg 11:1-11, note), and had passed many years of his life as an exile in Syria. Now it is well known that human sacrifices were frequently practised in Syria, as they were also by the Ammonites, who made their children pass through the fire to Moloch, and it cannot surprise us that a man brought up as Jephthah was, and leading the life of a freebooter at the head of a band of Syrian outlaws, should have the common Syrian notion of the efficacy of human sacrifices in great emergencies. His language, indeed, about Jehovah and Chemosh in Jdg 11:24 savoured of semi-heathenism. Nor is it any valid objection that we are told in Jdg 11:29 that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.” The phrase does not mean that thenceforth he was altogether under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that all that he did was inspired by the Spirit of truth and wisdom, but that the Spirit of the Lord inspired him with extraordinary strength and power for the great task of leading Israel to battle against the Ammonites. And I will offer. The rendering suggested by some, or I will offer, meaning, if the first. comer is a human being he shall be the Lord’s, or if it is an animal I will offer it as a burnt offering, is wholly inadmissible.
Jdg 11:32
So Jephthah. The narrator takes up again the thread of the narrative, which was interrupted at Jdg 11:29, the words he passed over up, to the children of Ammon being repeated.
Jdg 11:33
From Aroer to Minnith. The Aroer here mentioned seems to be that in the tribe of Gad (Num 32:34; Jos 13:25), now Nahr Amman. Minnith is thought to have been situated four Roman miles from Heshbon, on the road to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, afterwards called Philadelphia. It was called Manith in the time of Eusebius. The plain of the vineyards, better taken as a proper name, Abel–ceramim. The site is not certainly known. Eusebius speaks of two Abels, both fertile in vineyards, one seven Roman miles from Rabbah, which is probably the one here meant.
Jdg 11:34
To his house. Soever. 11. His only child (Je’hid)the same term as is applied to Isaac (Gen 22:2). Eusebius says that Cronus sacrificed his only son, who on that account was called Jeoud, which in the Phoenician tongue means an only son (‘Prep. Evang.,’ Jdg 4:17).
Jdg 11:35
Thou hast brought me very lowliterally, thou hast thoroughly bowed me down, i.e. with sorrow. I cannot go back. A forcible illustration of the evil of rash vows. He who makes them is so placed that he must sin. If he breaks his vow, he has taken God’s name in vain; if he keeps it, he breaks one of God’s commandments. So it was with Saul (1Sa 14:24, 1Sa 14:39-45), with Herod (Mar 6:23); so it has often been since with those who have made unauthorised vows, and who in attempting to keep them have fallen into deadly sin.
Jdg 11:36
My father, etc. See Num 32:2. The touching submission of Jephthah’s daughter to her unnatural and terrible fate, while it reveals a most lovable character, seems also to show that the idea of a human sacrifice was not so strange to her mind as it is to ours. The sacrifice of his eldest son as a burnt offering by the king of Moab, some 300 years later, as related 2Ki 3:27; the intended sacrifices of Iphigenia and of Phrixus in Greek mythology; the sacrifices of children to Moloch, so often spoken of in Scripture; the question in Mic 6:7, “Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” the Phoenician custom mentioned by Sanchoniatho (quoted by Porphyry), of sacrificing to Saturn one of those most dear to them in times of war, pestilence, or drought; the yearly sacrifice at Carthage of a boy chosen by lot, and many other examples, prove the prevalence of human sacrifices in early times, and in heathen lands. This must be borne in mind in reading the history of Jephthah.
Jdg 11:37
And bewail my virginity. It is a striking evidence of the strong desire among Hebrew women to be mothers, as seen in Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, and others, that it was the prospect of dying unmarried which seemed to Jephthah’s daughter the saddest part of her fate. So in Psa 78:63, their maidens were not given to marriage is one of the items of the misery of Israel (see too Psa 78:39).
Jdg 11:39
Who did with her according to his vow. Nothing can be more express than this statement. In fact, except the natural horror we feel at a human sacrifice, there is nothing to cast the least shade of doubt upon the fact that Jephthah’s daughter was offered up as a burnt offering, in accordance with heathen notions, but, as Josephus says, neither “conformably to the law, nor acceptably to God.” Most of the early Jewish commentators and all the Christian Fathers for ten or eleven centuries held this view. Luther’s comment is, “Some affirm that he did not sacrifice her, but the text is clear enough.” She knew. Rather, she had known.
Jdg 11:40
The daughters of Israel, etc. No other trace of this custom, which was probably confined to Gilead, remains. To lament. The word rather means to praise, or celebrate, as in Jdg 5:11 (rehearse).
HOMILETICS
Jdg 11:29-40
Human perverseness embittering the sweet cup.
The tragic history of Jephthah and his daughter is one of the saddest in the Bible. It forms a drama full of pathos, and with terrible contrasts of joy and sorrow. Indeed the whole life of Jephthah was one of startling incident. Driven from his home in youth to become a fugitive and an exile; leading the wild and exciting life of a captain of freebooters till middle age; then recalled to his father’s house to take his place as head of the State with all the pomp and power of a great prince, a great warrior, a conqueror, and a judge; in the height of his joy and triumph struck to the ground by a sorrow of the intensest bitterness, which must have blighted the few remaining years of his lifehis whole life was one of strange vicissitudes and sensational events. The stain of his birth was not, of course, any fault of his; but it led to that irregular course of lawlessness and violence which must have laid the seeds of many faults of characterrecklessness, impulsiveness, and indifference to human rights and human sufferingswhich were mingled with many great and heroic qualities. Especially we see how the habit of fighting for plunder, and for the purely selfish ends of a livelihood for himself and his followers, produced that lower type of greatness which bartered his own energies and prowess for place and power, instead of the generous self-sacrifice for the good of his country which marked the career of Ehud and Gideon. What, however, is here especially to be remarked and treasured up in our minds is, that the cup of prosperity and joy which God’s goodness had mixed for Jephthah was turned into a cup of bitterness by his own perverse folly and rashness and ignorance of God’s grace. See what great things God had done for him. He had delivered him from his life of lawlessness; he had placed him in a high and honourable estate; he had brought him from banishment to the land and house of his fathers; he had filled him with his Spirit, and mightily strengthened him for his great task; he had gone forth with his army, and driven his enemies before his face, and crowned him with victory. Jephthah returned to his home as the deliverer of his country, the restorer of peace to the homesteads of Gilead, all glittering with success and glory, Nor was he wanting in sources of a softer and tenderer happiness. A blight and loving spirit, full of affection and joyous sympathy, overflowing with dutiful pride and beaming sympathy, was awaiting his return. His daughter, the light of his home, the solace of his cares, was there to welcome him and to double his happiness by sharing it. And as he looked forward to the future, he might hope to see her the mother of children who would perpetuate his name and his race. Such was his lot as God had prepared it for him. His own rash and perverse act, springing from a culpable ignorance of the character of God, and directed by heathen superstition and cruelty instead of by trust in the love and mercy of Jehovah, poured an ingredient of extreme bitterness into this cup of joy and poisoned his whole life. The hour of triumph was turned into desolation, the bright home was made a house of mourning, what should have been years of peace and honour were turned into years of trouble and despair, and Jephthah had no one but himself to blame for this lamentable reverse. Alas, how often we can match this scene by similar instances of human perverseness embittering the sweet cup of life! A nation’s career is checked by crime, or cruelty, or treachery; an individual’s life is marred by some act of ungodliness which entails a life-long harvest of bitter fruits; domestic enjoyment is destroyed by the sins of selfishness and self-willed folly. Bountiful gifts of a gracious Providence, wealth and abundance, splendid opportunities for good, intellectual endowments, rare talents, or, in humbler life, openings for advancement and usefulness which might have led to distinction, are through the perverse folly of their possessors worse than wasted, and dark shadows are thrown across what should have been the brightness of a happy life. And then men speak of their bad luck, and murmur against the providence of God; as if one could sow the wind and not reap the whirlwind, or cut off the shadow of sin, remorse and shame and death.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jdg 11:29-33
The spirit of sacred warfare.
There is much at which the modern reader stumbles in the stories of Old Testament warfare. The pitilessness, the assumption that all the right of the question between the belligerents is on one side, the carnage even to extermination, are all repugnant to modern feeling. It is well to look at the Divine background and relation of these wars: therein, and therein alone, will be found their apology, if apology be forthcoming. In the Ammonite war of Jephthah
I. JUSTIFICATION IS FOUND IN THAT, ON THE LOWEST GROUND, IT WAS A WAR OF SELF–PRESERVATION; AND, ON THE HIGHEST, ISRAEL WAS DEFINITELY AND AUTHORITATIVELY IDENTIFIED WITH THE CAUSE OF GOD‘S TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND APPOINTED THE INSTRUMENT OF HIS JUDGMENTS. In a sense there was “no quarter” in these wars. The claims of the foes of God’s people were of the most extreme and exacting character. The barbarians had no pity. It would have been of small moment to them to have “utterly cut off” every man, woman, and child. The greatest crimes were perpetrated by them on the smallest provocation; and they could not be trusted. There was one argument, and one alone, that could be understoodthe sword. But there were also weighty interests represented by Israel, for the sake of which it was pre-eminently important that it should continue to exist, and that under conditions of freedom and religion. It was its mission to reveal the will of God to men, not only as a verbal communication, but as a law illustrated in life and conduct. These interests were the highest interests of the world, and Israel was custodian of them for all future ages. There is a humanitarianism that discounts truth, and would reduce all duty to the nearer and more external utilities of life. The Bible, whilst not ignoring the brotherhood of men (no book guards this so jealously), is careful to ground it upon a Divine fatherhood, and to secure its true observance by enforcement of morality and righteousness. Israel, too, was not at liberty to exercise forbearance. “The iniquity” of these nations “was full.” They were guilty of unnameable crimes, rejecters of Divine revelation, and cumberers of the ground yet to be occupied by God’s gracious purposes.
II. ALL THROUGH JEHOVAH WAS RECOGNISED AS THE TRUE ARBITER. Nothing could be more impressive than the attitude of Jephthah. He is anxious to obtain a just settlement without recourse to arms. He sets forth his statement of the case with the utmost courtesy, exactitude, and forbearance. Every opportunity is given for peaceful understanding; but Ammon turns a deaf ear. Solemnly then, under the peculiar dispensation in which they lived, they put the question in the hands of God. Jehovah is to witness between the disputants, and the war is no longer a confused strife, but a punitive judgment. Israel, under such circumstances, was not at liberty to waive its moral claims, and to grant a truce ere the enemy had yielded the point at issue. Israel is the instrument of Divine vengeance upon a wicked and obstinate nation. It is an anachronism of the gravest consequence to judge of the wars of the ancient world by the ameliorated conditions of modern life.
III. THE LEADER OF ISRAEL RECEIVED HIS COMMISSION DIRECTLY FROM THE HANDS OF 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. He bears the blame, so far as his commands are observed. If the mode of warfare, etc. appear inhuman, it will be because our minds fail to grasp the tremendous importance of that righteousness of which they were the slow precursors and rude witnesses.
IV. THE WAR IS CARRIED ON IN THE SPIRIT OF SELF–SACRIFICE AND IMPLICIT DEVOTION. The vow of Jephthah shows this. He anticipates his return in victory, and the people’s enthusiastic welcome to him as their deliverer. Like Gideon, he will not accept this; it is Jehovah’s alone. To Jehovah, therefore, he vows of his own “whatsoever cometh forth (out) of the doors of my house to meet me.” No gratification of self, therefore, could be the motive of such a campaign. If, on the other hand, there is not that repugnance to bloodshed displayed by Jephthah that might be looked for in a Christian leader, we must remember that the religious nature developed slowly in human history, and God chose his instruments not because they were perfect, but, such as they were, to bring on higher possibilities and a better time.M.
Jdg 11:30, Jdg 11:31, Jdg 11:34-40
Jephthah’s vow.
What it involved has been much disputed. But the wording of the vow certainly admits of an interpretation consistent with the highest humanity. The object is expressed neutrally, as being more comprehensive; but there is a distinction introduced into the consequent member of the sentence which shows that regard is had to a dual possibility, viz; of the object being either personal or otherwise. If the former, he or she was to be “Jehovah’s,” an expression unnecessary if it was to be made a burnt offering, and which could only mean “dedicated to perpetual virginity or priesthood.” If the latter, he would “offer it for a burnt offering.” It bears out this that his daughter asks for two months “to bewail her virginity.” The inference is imperative. It was not death, but perpetual virginity, to which she was devoted. In this vow we observe
I. THE SPIRIT OF CONSECRATION IT EVINCED. Its meaning was evident. Jehovah was the true Judge and Deliverer of Israel. His, therefore, should be the glory when Israel returned in victory. There was to be no diverting of honour from him to Jephthah. A sacrifice, therefore, should be made before all men to acknowledge this. But as Jephthah is the person most in danger of being tempted to forget God’s claim, he himself gives anticipatively of his own, and of his own, especially, which might be considered as specially for his honour. It was a “blank form” to be filled up by Providence as it would.
II. THE UNEXPECTED FORM THE SACRIFICE ASSUMED. How it astonishes men when God takes them at their word! Not that they do not mean what they say, but they do not realise all it implies. God ever does this that he may educate the heart in loving sacrifice, and reveal the grandeur and absoluteness of his own claim upon us.
III. THE GRACE THAT INVESTED IT from
1. The mutual love of parent and child. They both sorrow because she is an only child, and they are all in all to one another. It was a keen, real sacrifice.
2. The unquestioning and cheerful obedience of the child. Like Isaac and Christ.
3. The unwavering fidelity of Jephthah to his vow. It was the wisest course, and the one that proved best the fidelity and infinite love of God. There was sorrow, but who will say that there was not a compensating blessedness in the act, and a “more exceeding weight of glory” in the ages to come? This is what God expects. Have we ever vowed to him? If so, have we paid our vows? Negligence in this matter will explain much that distresses and perplexes us. Honesty towards Godhow few practise it! Yet this is the true proof of him (Mal 3:10).
IV. HOW AN ABSOLUTE PERSONAL SACRIFICE MAY BECOME A NATIONAL IDEAL AND ATONEMENT. The circumstances were such that all Israel sympathised with the act of self-devotion. It fell in with the national mood and carried it to heroic pitch. The “custom in Israel” shows how profoundly the spirit of the people had been touched. The maiden offered to Jehovah is adopted as the offering of her people, a vicarious sacrifice of their repentance and faith. So does the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, become the world’s atonement (2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15).M.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jdg 11:29
The Spirit of the Lord.
I. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS NOT A MERE INFLUENCE, BUT A LIVING PRESENCE. It is taught throughout Scripture that God does not only bestow graces, but also comes personally into our souls (Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17). This Divine presence may not be perceived by the senses, as in the visions of the dove (Mat 3:16) and of the cloven tongues of fire (Act 2:3). It need not give rise to any ecstasy or visible excitement, as in the case of the Corinthian Church (1Co 14:2). It may be without the immediate consciousness of the subject. But it will be proved by its effects.
II. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD COMES UPON A MAN TO INSPIRE HIM FOR SERVICE. God does not simply inhabit a man as a temple; he infuses his life into the very being of the man; transforms, elevates: enlightens, strengthens. Thus Jephthah found the Spirit to be the source of his power for battle. God’s Spirit is always the spring of the Christian’s highest energies. It is foolish to attempt to do any good work without the aid that is given by the indwelling power of God.
III. THE SPECIAL FORM OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE CAPACITIES OF THE RECIPIENT AND THE REQUIREMENTS OF HIS WORK. There is a variety of gifts.
1. God’s Spirit affects us differently, according to our natural differences. To the thoughtful man he is a spirit of understanding. To him who hungers and thirsts after righteousness he is a spirit of holiness. To the sympathiser, the comforting friend, he is a spirit of love. To the active worker he is a spirit of power.
2. God’s Spirit also affects us differently according to the needs of the times. God does not waste his influence; he adapts it to requirements. Therefore we must not think that his Spirit is less with us than with men of old because the manifestation is different, nor that he is less with those who have not the form of spiritual influence which we esteem most than with those who possess it (1Co 12:6).
IV. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD DOES NOT ANNIHILATE THE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS OF MEN. Jephthah retains his natural characteristics, and still shows them.
1. God’s Spirit does not supersede natural talent, but enlightens, purifies, and strengthens.
2. God s Spirit does not destroy human weakness. Jephthah has the Spirit of the Lord, yet he may be rash and may err. The spirit of wisdom does not necessarily accompany the spirit of strength. We may have the presence of the Spirit, and yet not be filled with the Spirit, so that human weakness may linger by the side of Divine power.A.
Jdg 11:30-40
Jephthah’s vow.
Jephthah’s conduct should be viewed in the light of his age and of his own conscientious convictions, and not judged by the clearer light and changed convictions of Christendom. Measured by modern standards, it may appear superstitious, cruel, insane; but measured by the only standards to which Jephthah could bring it, his conduct was noble beyond expression. From the incident generally we may gather the following lessons:
I. THE HAND OF GOD SHOULD BE RECOGNISED IN OUR GOOD AND FRUITFUL WORKS. The eiders had called upon Jephthah to deliver them from the Ammonites. Yet the warrior saw that his own right hand could not secure the victory; if this came, it must be from God. Such conduct shows humilitya difficult grace for a popular hero to practise in the midst of his triumph; and faith in discerning the secret of success in the presence of God, and trusting to this before entering the battle.
II. IT IS RIGHT THAT WE SHOULD RECOGNISE GOD‘S CLAIMS IN RETURN FOR THE RECEPTION OF HIS GRACE. The thank offering belongs not to the Levitical law alone, but to all religion (Rom 12:1). It is foolish to think to buy the help of God by promising him devotion in return (Gen 28:20-22). But it may be helpful to our fulfilment of the duties of gratitude if we recognise the obligation of thankfulness even before we receive the special blessing of God, as we are more likely to realise it fully then than after we are relieved and satisfied. It should always be remembered that we have already received such great bounties from God that we are under constant obligations to him, that he claims our hearts, our possessions, our all, and that our true blessedness is only found in perfect surrender to him.
III. IT IS GENERALLY FOOLISH AND WRONG TO MAKE A VOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF WHICH WE DO NOT FORESEE. There may be an occasional advantage in the vow to bind the soul by a solemn recognition of its obligations; but we are equally required to give God our all whether we make a vow or no. Nothing is more weak than to vow at a time when we axe not called to make a sacrifice, and then to prove unequal to the sacrifice when this is required. It is better to count the cost and refrain from making the vow if necessary (Luk 14:28). The vow is often only a sign of presumption. It would be well for us to turn our vows into prayers, and instead of promising that we will do some great thing, to ask God to give us grace to do it. Still, viewed from the standpoint of devotion, there is something noble in the perfect surrendering of self, and the brave trustfulness of Jephthah’s vow.
IV. WE SHOULD CONSIDER OURSELVES BOUND TO KEEP THOSE VOWS WHICH WE MAKE TO OUR OWN HURT SO LONG AS WE DO NOT FEEL THIS TO BE WRONG. Our own inconvenience is no excuse for declining to fulfil an obligation, just because we did not anticipate the trouble in entering into the obligation (Psa 15:4). But our conviction of wrong is a reason for not keeping our promise. A promise to do evil is void from the first. It is wrong to make such a promise; to fulfil it is to add a second wrong. We can never bind ourselves by vow to do that which it would not be right for us to do without the vow. Therefore for us, with our Christian light, it would be sinful to fulfil such a vow as Jephthah’s. Nevertheless, the great Hebrew hero clearly felt that it was his duty to fulfil it, and therefore to him the vow was binding. If we blame him, it must be
(1) for the rashness which allowed him to contract himself into an obligation which he would never have entered with his eyes opened, and
(2) for the ignorance of the character of God which is shown in his supposition that God could be pleased with the sacrifice of his daughter. Even the imperfect revelation of God then vouchsafed should have prevented such a frightful misconception if it had been rightly used (Gen 22:12). But we may find more of good example than of warning in the whole incident. Pathetic as is the error of Jephthah, his magnificent fidelity is a model of religious heroism.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jephthah proceeds to the conflict. He vows a vow unto Jehovah
Jdg 11:29-33
29Then the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah] came upon Jephthah, and he passed over [through] Gilead, and [namely,] Manasseh, and passed over [through] Mizpeh of Gilead [Mizpeh-Gilead], and from Mizpeh of Gilead [Mizpeh-Gilead] he passed over unto [against] the children [sons] of Ammon. 30And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord [Jehovah], and said, If thou shalt without fail21 deliver the children 31[sons] of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth [out] of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children [sons] of Ammon, shall surely be the Lords [Jehovahs], and I will offer it 32up for a burnt-offering. So [And] Jephthah passed over unto the children [sons] of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord [Jehovah] delivered them into his hands. 33And he smote them from Aroer even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards [unto Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter. Thus the children [sons] of Ammon were subdued before the children [sons] of Israel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg 11:30.It would be better, perhaps, with Dr. Cassel to omit the words without fail. The Hebrew infinitive before the finite verb serves to intensify the latter; but the endeavor to give its value in a translation, is very apt to result in the suggestion of thoughts or shades of thought foreign to the original. Cf. Ges. Gram. 131, 3, a.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg 11:29; Jdg 11:33. Noble words are followed by splendid deeds. It is, however, no easy matter to determine the geographical arena in which the history of Jephthah is enacted. The sons of Israel, according to Jdg 10:17, assembled themselves in Mizpah. To Mizpah also, Jephthah is brought from the land of Tob: and there he utters his words before Jehovah (Jdg 11:11). This Mizpah cannot be identical with Mizpeh-Gilead; for, according to Jdg 11:29, Jephthah proceedednamely, from Mizpahthrough Gilead, even through that part of it which belonged to Manasseh, thence to Mizpeh-Gilead, and from Mizpeh-Gilead against the sons of Ammon. The position of Mizpeh-Gilead may be probably determined. According to Jos 13:26, there was in the territory of Gad a place called Ramath ha-Mizpeh. This place, the same doubtless which is elsewhere called Ramoth-Gilead (1Ki 4:13) and Ramoth in Gilead (Jos 21:38), a possession of the Levites, and distinguished as a city of refuge (Jos 21:8 ff.), is with great probability referred to the site of the present es-Salt, in modern times the only important place south of the Jabbok, the central point of the Belka, and meeting-place of all its roads (Ritter, xv. 1122). Being built around the sides of a steep hill, which is still crowned with a castle, this place answers very well to a city bearing the name Ramoth (Height). It is still a place of refuge; and, as Seetzen relates, those who flee thither, are, according to ancient custom, protected by the inhabitants, even at the risk of their own lives. Now, as Ramoth ha-Mizpeh may be compared with es-Salt, so Mizpeh or ha-Mizpeh Gilead with what in modern times is called el-Belka.22 If this be allowed, the point of departure of Jephthahs course of victory is plain. From Mizpeh-Gilead he pressed forward against the enemy, and smote him from Aroer (Jdg 11:33). Now, according to Jos 13:25, Aroer lay over against Rabbath Ammon (at present Ammn), the capital of the Ammonites, and its position may therefore not improperly be compared with that of the modern Aireh. The places unto which Jephthah smote the enemy, Minnith and Abel Keramim, can scarcely be discovered. They only indicate the wealth and cultivation of the now desolate land. Minnith supplied Tyre with wheat (Eze 27:17). As to Abel Keramim (Meadow of Vineyards), it implies the vicinity of the Ammonitish capital, whose ruins, and also many of its coins, still exhibit the grape-bunch prominent among their ornaments (Ritter, xv. 1152, 1157). But with all this, Mizpah, whence Jephthah and his men set out to go to es-Salt and Aireh, pursuing their march through Gilead, more definitely, through the Gilead of Manasseh, north of the Jabbok, remains yet undetermined. Although it does not occur again, it muse yet have been a place of some importance. Inasmuch as it has a name which characterizes its situation only in a general way, it may in later times have borne a different one. It seems to agree most nearly with what in Jos 11:3 is called the land of Mizpeh,the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. For, as is also stated 1Ch 5:23, the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land of Bashan, as far as Baal-Hermon, and Senir, and Mt. Hermon. Now, the Pella of later times, so named on account of the similarity of its situation to the Macedonian city of the same nameit lay on a height, surrounded by wateris said formerly to have been called Butis, still in agreement with the Macedonian city, which lay in the district Bottiis. A similarity of sound between the name Butis and Mizpah could only then be found, if it might be assumed that as Timnah was also called Timnatah, so Mizpah had also been called Mizpatah. It would at all events be worth while to fix, even conjecturally, upon the place where the great hero prepared himself for his victory. As he enters on the conflict, the Spirit of Jehovah rests upon him. He has given the decision into Jehovahs hands; he looks to Him for victory; and to Him he makes a vow.
Jdg 11:30-32. This vow has been the subject of the most singular misapprehensions; and yet, rightly understood, it crowns the deep piety of this hero of God. Jephthah perceives the full significance of the course on which he decides. He knows how greatly victory will strengthen faith in God throughout all the tribes. He sees a new Israel rise up. The people have trustingly committed themselves to his leadership, and he has uttered all his words before Jehovah. In this state of mind, he bows himself before his God (1Sa 1:28), and makes a vow.23 To the national spirit which expresses itself in the Bible, vows are the signs and expression of the deepest self-surrender to God. Jacob makes vows to be fulfilled on his prosperous return home (Gen 28:20 ff.). In the Psalms, to pay ones vows, has become synonymous with to live in God (Psa 61:8; Psa 116:16 ff). The prophet describes the coming salvation of the nations by saying that they shall make vows and perform them (Isa 19:21). And this idea is deeply grounded in truth: for in the vows which man makes to God, there is evidently expressed a living faith in the divine omnipotence and omniscience. Man expects from Him, and would fain give to Him. The more one feels himself to have received from God, the more will he desire to consecrate to Him. Such is the feeling under which Jephthah makes his vow to Jehovah. He promises that if God grant him victory, and he return home crowned with success, then that which goeth forth from the doors of my house to meet me, shall be Jehovahs, and I will present it as a whole burnt-offering. He makes this vow from the fullness of his conviction that victory belongs to God alone, and from the fullness of his love, which would give to God that which belongs to Him as the author of success. He would make it known to God, that he regards Him, and not himself, as the commander-in-chief. There exists, therefore, a profound connection between the words, when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, and the expression, whatsoever cometh forth to meet me; and it is essential to the right understanding of the vow that this be borne in mind. Victory will awaken great rejoicings among the people. They will meet the returning victor with loud acclamations of gladness. They will receive him with gifts and adornments, with garlands and dances. Such receptions were customary among all nations. The multitude scattered roses, myrtles,24 and perfumes. Similar customs obtained in Israel (1Sa 18:6). Jephthah will be celebrated and praised. But not to himto God, belongs the honor! That which is consecrated to him, belongs, wholly and entirely, to God. This is the first ground of his vow. Jephthahs overflowing heart knows not what to consecrate. He feels that nothing is sufficient to be presented to God. But all things are subject to Gods disposal. Therefore, whatever comes forth over the threshold of his house to meet him, when he returns victorious,it shall be for God. He will have no part in it. By this first ground of the vow, its analogy with heathen narratives is so far limited, that there is here no talk of a sacrifice to consist of just the first25 whom he meets, and the first alone. Nor is it necessary to assume that , that which goeth forth, must be understood to mean only one person. It is as little necessary as that in Num 30:3 (2), where vows are treated of, the words , that which proceedeth out of his mouth, must mean one word. The participle is in the singular on account of its neutral signification. This indefiniteness is the peculiar characteristic of the votive formula. Equally indefinite is the meaning of the verb (goeth forth), which may be used of persons and things, men and animals (cf. Gen 9:10). But the occasion of the vow shows also that Jephthah must have thought of persons as coming forth to meet him. At all events, he cannot have thought that precisely a lamb or an ox would come forth from his doors to meet him. Notwithstanding the breadth of the vow, notwithstanding all its indefiniteness, which is left, as it were, to be filled out by God himself, the chieftain must have thought of persons coming to meet him; for they come forth on account of the victory, and for that reason may be given to God who gives the triumph. Doubtless, the abundance of his love is as boundless as that of his faith. As little as he analyzes the latter, by which Gods victorious might enters his heart, so little does his vow separate and individualize the objects of the former. He calculates notraises no difficulties: whatever comes to meet him, that he will give to God. But as surely as this does not include things beyond the range of possible contingencies, so surely must he have had some thoughts as to who might meet him on a victorious return home. And if he was aware that not only oxen and lambs might come out to meet himfor such a limitation would contradict the breadth of the vow itselfhe was equally aware that not everything which might come forth, could be offered up like oxen and lambs.
Due stress being laid on the fact that the meeting is contemplated as one taking place in consequence of victory, there is suggested, for the further understanding of the vow, a second point of view, not yet properly considered. Jephthahs war is a national war against Ammon. The freedom and rights, which Israel had received from Jehovah, are thereby vindicated. The negotiations about the claims to certain lands, set up by Ammon, and refuted by Jephthah, have not been related in vain. They exhibit the God of Israel in his absolute greatness, over against Chemosh, the false deity of the Ammonites. Israel has repented; and it is not one man, but the whole tribe, that is represented as beseeching Jehovah for help. To bring out this contrast between Jehovah and the gods of the heathen, the history of Israel, which rests on the power and will of Jehovah, is referred to in a free and living way. Jephthah is conversant with the divine record. He calls on Jehovah to decide as judge between himself and Ammon (Jdg 11:27), just as in his dealings with the Gileadites he appeals to Him as Hearer (ver.11). He utters his words before Jehovah, and the Spirit of Jehovah comes upon him. The name Elohim is not used,for that Ammon considers applicable to his gods also,but always that name which involves the distinctive faith of Israel, namely, Jehovah. All through, Jephthah is represented as familiar with the Mosaic institutes, and imbued with their spirit; and this just because the history deals with a national war against Ammon. The vow also, which Jephthah makes, is modeled by this contrast between Israel and Ammon. The tribes descended from Lot are especially notorious for the nature of their idolatrous worship. The abominations practiced by Ammon and Moab in honor of Milcom (as they called Molech) and Chemosh, are sufficiently familiar from the history of Israel under the kings (1Ki 11:7, etc.). The sacrifice of human beings, particularly children, formed a terrible part of their worship. They burned and slaughtered those whom they loved, in token of devotion and surrender to the dreaded demon. The same practices were generally diffused among the Phnicians (cf. Movers, i. 302). On great national occasions, such as war or pestilence, parents vowed to sacrifice their children on the public altars. In the Second Book of Kings (Jdg 3:27) we have the horrible story of the king of Moab, who slaughtered his eldest son on the walls of his city. Without entering farther into this terrible superstition, the explanation of which by Movers is not exhaustive, thus much it is necessary to say here: that the sacrifices it required were regarded by the nations who offered them, as the highest expression of their self-surrender to the idol-god. Hence, it is only upon the background of this practice, that the offering of Isaac by Abraham can be rightly understood. Abraham is put to the proof, whether he will show the same free and obedient self-surrender. As soon as he has done that, it is made clear that such sacrifices God does not desire.
A similar contrast is unquestionably exhibited in the vow of Jephthah; only, here the reference is specially to Ammon. Jephthah appears before Jehovah with devotion and readiness to make sacrifices not inferior to that of which idolaters boast themselves. He promises to present to God whatever shall come to meet him. In the form of a vow, and with indefinite fullness, he declares his readiness to resign whatsoever God himself, by his providential orderings, shall mark out. It is precisely in this that the conscious opposition of the vow to the abominable sacrifices of the Ammonites expresses itself. The highest self-abnegation is displayed; but in connection with it, the will of God is sought after. God himself will determine what is acceptable to Him; and Jephthah knows that this God has said: When thou art come into the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire (which was the Molech-worship of the Ammonites); . for every one that doeth these things, is an abomination unto Jehovah; and because of these abominations doth Jehovah thy God drive them out from before thee (Deu 18:9 ff). To the expulsion of the nations by God, in favor of Israel, Jephthah26 himself formerly appealed. We conclude, therefore, that the very formula of this vow, made on the eve of war with Ammon, excludes the idea of a human sacrifice.
The sacrificial system of Israel stands throughout in marked contrast with the Canaanitish Molech service. Its animal sacrifices are the spiritual symbols which it opposes to the abominations of Canaan. To see this, it is only necessary to refer once more to the sacrifice of Abraham. God says to him: Offer me Isaac for a whole burnt-offering (); and when Abraham is about to give Isaac wholly up, an animal is substituted for him (Gen 22:2; Gen 22:10 ff.). Since that time, (burnt-offering or whole burnt-offering) is the typical and technical term for an animal sacrifice, symbolical of perfect surrender and consecration to God. The offerings which were thus named, were wholly consumed by fire. Nothing was left of them. Hence, precisely , in its sense of animal sacrifice, presented a strong contrast with the worship of the Ammonites, for among them human beings were offered up in the same manner as the Israelites offered animals.
When Gideon is directed to destroy the altar of Baal, he is at the same time commanded to offer a bullock as a whole burnt-offering () on an altar to be erected by himself, and to consume it with the wood of the Asherah (Jdg 6:26).27 Such also is the whole burnt-offering (), to offer which permission is given to Manoah, the father of Samson, without any mention being made of the animal (Jdg 13:16). The influence of worship on language in Israel, brought it about that , to offer, signifies the offering of an animal which is to be wholly consumed in the sacred fire. It is therefore significant and instructive, when in Jephthahs vow we find the expression: It shall be Jehovahs, and I will present it as a whole burnt offering (). in no other instance in which the bringing of a whole burnt-offering is spoken of, is the additional expression, it shall be Jehovahs, made use of, not even in the instances of Gideon and Manoah, although this of Jephthah is chronologically enclosed between them. How strangely would it have sounded, if it had been said to Gideon: Take the bullock; it shall belong to Jehovah, and thou shalt present it as a whole burnt-offering. For the bullock is presented in order that Gideon may belong to God. It is offered, not for itself, but for men. It is placed on the altar of God, just because it is the property of man. It is foreign to the spirit of Biblical language and life to say of a sacrificial animal, it shall belong to God, for the reason that the animal comes to hold a religious relation to God, only because it belongs to man, and is offered in mans behalf. An animal belonging to God, in s religious sense, without being offered up, is inconceivable. At least, it cannot be permitted to live.
Very important for this subject, is the passage in Exo 13:12-13. It is there commanded that, when Israel shall have come into Canaan, every first-born shall be set apart unto Jehovah, both the firstlings of every beast which thou hast ( ), and the first-born of man. The firstling of such animals as cannot be offered, the ass, for instance, is to be redeemed with money; or, if the owner do not wish to redeem it, he must kill it. The first-born of man, however, must be redeemed. The first-born animal is moreover set apart for God only on account of man, its owner. This substitutionary belonging to God, it can only represent in death. Hence the expression, it shall belong to God, is never used of animals, but they are said to be offered. On the contrary, it can be applied only to human beings; he shall belong to God, shall live for God, conscious of his own free will and of the divine Spirit, which consciousness is wanting in animals. Scripture itself gives this explanation, Num 3:12, where it is said: Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel, instead of all the first-born; therefore, the Levites belong to me ( ). The Levites belong to God for all Israel through their life; the first-born of animals, through their sacrificial death. Accordingly, Hannah also, when she makes her vow to God, says, that if a son be granted her, she will give him unto Jehovah; and when she brings him to the tabernacle, that he is lent unto Jehovah ( , 1Sa 1:28) as long as he liveth.
We perceive, therefore, that in the words of Jephthah, it shall be Jehovahs, and I will present it as a whole burnt-offering, there can be no mere tautology. The two clauses do not coincide in meaning; they cannot stand the one for the other.
It is necessary, however, to attend to every word of this remarkable verse. For the vow is a contract, every point of which has its importance, and in which not only one being is thought of, but in which all creatures, human beings as well as brute beasts, the few or the many, that may come forth to meet Jephthah, are included, and each is consecrated as his kind permits. The vow speaks of whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors of my house. Many will come to meet him, but he can offer only of that which is his; over the rest he has no power of disposition. His promise extends to what comes out of his own house; and not to anything that comes accidentally, but to what comes to meet him. It must come forth for the purpose of receiving him. But even then, the vow becomes binding only when he returns crowned with victory and salvation (), and that, not over any and every foe, but over Ammon. If thus he be permitted to return, then whatever meets him shall be Jehovahs, and he will present it as a whole burnt-offering.
The promise must necessarily be expressed with the greatest exactitude. This was demanded by the requirement of the law, that he who makes a vow shall keep and perform that which is gone out of his lips, even as he vowed (Deu 23:24 [23]; Num 30:2). Had Jephthah thought only of animals, he would merely have employed the formula usual in such casesand I will present it unto thee as a whole burnt-offering. It would not have been sufficient to have said, it shall belong to Jehovah, because an animal belongs to God in this sense only when sacrificed for men. Precisely the insertion of the words, it shall belong to Jehovah, proves, therefore, that he thought also of human beings. The generality and breadth of the vow makes both clauses necessary, since either one alone would not have covered both men and animals. The first was inapplicable to animals, the second to human beings. Both being used, the one explains and limits the other. The main stress lies on the words, it shall belong to Jehovah, for therein is suggested the ground of the vow. They also stand first. Were human beings in question? then the first clause went into full operation; and the second taught that a life belonging to God must be one as fully withdrawn from this earthly life as is the sacrificial victim not redeemed according to law; while the first limited the second, by intimating that a human being need not be actually offered up, as the letter of the promise seemed to require, but that the important point is that it belong wholly to God.
God demands no vows. It is no sin, when none are made. But when one has been made, it must be kept. Jephthah obtains the victory: God does his part; and the trying hour soon comes in which Jephthah must do his. But, as in battle, so in the hour of private distress, he approves himself, and triumphs, albeit with tears.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jephthah is deeply impressed with the extraordinary nature of the call he has received. For it is only because he is humble, that he is called. Gideon, in his slight estimate of himself, asks of God to show him miraculous signs on such objects as he points out. Jephthah, regarding the undertaking as great and himself as small, would fain give to God whatever He himself shall elect. His vow is the offspring of his humility. It is pressed out of him by the extraordinary calling which is imposed upon him. His love values nothing so highly, that he should not leave it to God to decide what shall be given up; but the will of God often goes sorely against the heart.
So deeply, also, does every truly humble man feel his calling as Christian and as citizen. It is difficult to be a Christian, says the heart, terrified at itself. And yet, for him who has been redeemed through penitence and faith, it is so easy. He only would give all, who knows that he must receive all. But the love of the soul that gives itself up, is stronger than its own strength. No true vow is made to the Lord without self-crucifixion. Gods ways are incomprehensible. Whom He loves, He chastens. We are ready to give Him everything; but when He takes, we weep. A broken heart is more pleasing to Him than sacrifice. No Passion, no Gospel.
Gerlach: The design of this history (concerning the vow) is not so much to set forth the rudeness of the age, or the dangers of rashly made vows, as rather to show how Israel was saved from its enemies, by the faith of Jephthah, at d how the service of the true God was restored under the heaviest sacrifices of the faithful.
Footnotes:
[21][Jdg 11:30.It would be better, perhaps, with Dr. Cassel to omit the words without fail. The Hebrew infinitive before the finite verb serves to intensify the latter; but the endeavor to give its value in a translation, is very apt to result in the suggestion of thoughts or shades of thought foreign to the original. Cf. Ges. Gram. 131, 3, a.Tr.]
[22][El-Belka is a modern division of the east-jordanic territory, and is bounded by Wady Zerka (the Jabbok) on the north, and by Wady Mojeb (the Arnon) on the south. It is evident, therefore, that our author regards Mizpeh-Gilead as the name of a district, not of a city. The reasoning from the identification of Ramoth-Mizpeh with es-Salt to that of Mizpeh-Gilead with el-Belka, is not so clear, but seems to be this: Since Ramoth-Mizpeh is also called Ramoth-Gilead and Ramoth in Gilead, it is to be inferred that Mizpeh, like Gilead, indicates the district in which Ramath is situated, with this difference, however, that Mizpeh is more definite, being only a division of Gilead. But Ramoth may be identified with es-Salt in the Belka; hence the ancient district Mizpeh may be compared with the modern province el-Belka.Tr.]
[23]For the history of the exegesis, and its characteristic points, I refer to my article Jephthah, in Herzogs Real-Encyklopdie, the materials of which cannot here be reproduced, but the drift of which is here, I trust, provided with fresh support. The other recent literature on the subject is indicated by Keil, who justly explains that the assumption of a spiritual sacrifice is almost imperatively demanded. The opinions of the church fathers are collected in the Commentary of Serarius. Bertheaus decision for an actual sacrificial death, may probably be explained by the supposition that he did not view the transaction freely and independently, but only with reference to the opinions of others, a proceeding of too frequent occurrence.
[24]Cf. Gerhard, Auserlesene griech. vasengemlde, i. 130, 166.
[25]Which is the decisive point in the legends concerning Idomeneus, as told by Servius, and Alexander, as related by Valerius Maximus (vii. 3; cf. my article in Herzog, vi. 472). This also is the turning point in a series of later, especially German, popular tales, in which the first is not so much freely promised to, as demanded by, the demon power who, for that price, has supported or delivered the person from whom the sacrifice is required. This first is usually the person most beloved by him who, to his great regret, has made the promise (cf. Mllenhoff, Sagen, pp. 384, 386, 395; Sommer, Sagen, pp. 87, 131). Sometimes, the first human being is successfully rescued from the devilfor it is he who appears in Christian legendsby the substitution of an animal. In one of Mllenhoffs legends (p. 162, Anmerk.) a dog becomes the first; in Grimms Mythologie, p. 973 (cf. Wolf, Deutsche Sagen, p. 417, etc.), it is a goat. No doubt, a mistaken exposition of Jephthahs vow, had its influence here. It is, therefore, the more important to insist that in the vow nothing is said of a first one who may meet the returning conqueror.
[26]That it is just Jephthah, and he as the hero of law and faith, who presents this contrast with Ammon and human sacrifices, those expositors have overlooked, who, in spite of the God who was with him, describe, this very Jephhah as a barbarous transgressor of law.
[27]Our exposition puts no new and strained interpretations on and , but leaves them to be under stood in their general and well known Biblical acceptation being here the symbol of a spiritual truth, while yet it ignores animal sacrifices as little as does , see Ps. 51:21 (Psa 51:19).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
I pray the Reader to remark Jephthah’s anointing. It was the same spirit which came upon Jephthah, which descended upon the Lord Jesus, only with this difference, on Jephthah, according to the measure of the gift of Christ; upon the Lord Jesus without measure. But it is delightful to contemplate, that the anointing and qualifying of the Lord Jesus and his church is one and the same. All these worketh that one, and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. See Eph 4:7 ; Joh 3:34 ; 1Co 12:11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 11:29 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 of Ammon.
Ver. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. ] See Jdg 3:10 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the Spirit. Hebrew. ruach (feminine.) See App-9.
unto. This word is read in the text of some codices with Aramaean, Syriac, and Vulgate.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a Shadowed victory
Jdg 11:29-40
All the nations around were accustomed to offer those dearest to them in sacrifice to their cruel national deities. This was pre-eminently the case with the neighboring country of Moab, which the prophet Micah rebuked, Mic 6:6-8. But in all that wild border-country, there was then no prophetic voice to arrest Jephthah, who probably felt that Chemosh should not claim from the king of Ammon more than he would surrender to Jehovah. Out of this arose, not the rash but the deliberate though mistaken vow of Jdg 11:31. Before you judge him, ask whether you would be willing for your dearest to become a missionary in a heathen land. Have you ever yielded your all to the Man of Calvary? Do you love Him better than the best? You would not carry out your vow as probably Jephthah did, but are you as absolute in your dedication?
The reply of Jephthahs daughter is one of the noblest on record. Compare it with Luk 1:38. Her heart was full of filial love and patriotic passion, as she stood there, timbrel in hand; but the love of God overmastered all else and made her willing to yield all. See 2Co 5:14.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Jephthah
Jephthah seems to have been judge only of northeast Israel.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the spirit: Jdg 3:10, Jdg 6:34, Jdg 13:25, Num 11:25, 1Sa 10:10, 1Sa 16:13-15, 1Ch 12:18
Jephthah: “Jephthah seems to have been judge only of north-east Israel.”
over Mizpeh: Jdg 10:17
Reciprocal: Gen 31:49 – Mizpah Num 27:18 – a man Jos 13:26 – Ramathmizpeh Jdg 11:11 – Mizpeh Jdg 11:39 – did with Jdg 14:6 – the Spirit 1Sa 11:6 – Spirit of God 1Sa 22:3 – Mizpeh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The coming of the Spirit of the Lord on Jephthah proved he was God’s appointed leader. He immediately rose up and traveled through the area gathering an army to fight for the freedom of Gilead. This area, from the Arnon River to the Jabbak River, covered the inheritance of Reuben and half of Gad. Before going into battle, Jephthah vowed he would give to the Lord the first thing that came out of his house to meet him if the Lord gave the Ammonites into his hand ( Jdg 11:29-33 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Jdg 11:29. The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah The people had chosen him for their leader, and promised to continue him their chief governor, as they had already made him; and now God publicly declares his approbation of their choice; and appoints him their judge, as he had others before, (Jdg 3:10,) by endowing him with an extraordinary measure of courage and wisdom, and all other qualities necessary to render him fit to be a ruler of his people. He passed over Manasseh That is, Bashan, which the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan possessed. Mizpeh of Gilead So called, to distinguish it from other cities of the same name. Having gathered what forces he could, he suddenly came hither to the borders of the Ammonites.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jdg 11:29-33. Jephthahs Vow, and his Campaign against Ammon.
Jdg 11:29 b is probably an editorial note, a somewhat unskilful attempt to fasten the new cloth (Jdg 11:12-28) into the old garment (Moore.) Jephthahs vow was made at the holy place of Mizpah in Gilead, like Jacobs at Bethel (Gen. 28:24f., Gen 31:13). In hope of victory, or dread of disaster, men vowed, or devoted, to Yahweh something very preciousit might even be a human lifebelieving they would thus propitate His favour and secure His aid.
Jdg 11:31. Whatsoever is entirely wrong; read whosoever (mg.). Jephthah intended a human sacrifice. To suggest that he thought of an animalsay a sheep or a goatcrossing his path when he neared his home, is to trifle with tragedy.
Jdg 11:33. Aroer is not the city of that name on the Arnon (Jdg 11:26), but another near the ancient Rabbah, which is the modern Ammn (Jos 13:25). Minnith was probably near Heshbon. Abel-cheramim, Vineyard-meadow, is unknown.
Jdg 11:34. Read came to his home at Mizpah. Like Miriam at the Red Sea (Exo 15:20), and the women who welcomed home Saul and David (1Sa 18:6), Jephthahs daughter came forth to meet her father with timbrels and dances. This implies that she had companions (cf. Jdg 11:37), but the poignant fact was that she, as the conquerors daughter, was leading the dance.
Jdg 11:34 b is unsurpassable in its pathos; equalled only by Gen 22:2. The sacrifice of an only childwhat sorrow can compare with that? (cf. Jer 4:26, Amo 8:10, Zec 12:10). What is a victory, what are triumphal arches, and the praise of all creation, to a lonely man? (Mark Rutherford).
Jdg 11:35. Read thou hast stricken me, thou (emphatic) art one that bringeth disaster upon me.
Jdg 11:36. The pure and innocent maiden whose life was to be sacrificed is known only as Jephthahs Daughter, and she was worthy, more than worthy, of that name. With her fathers heroic spirit, she had a still nobler nature There is nothing in all literature finer than her answer in this verse. No wonder that her words have inspired poets. Tennyson paraphrases them in My God, my land, my father, and Byron in Since our country, our Godoh, my sire.
Jdg 11:37. She asks for a respite of two months. Life is sweet, brothers, who would wish to die?
Jdg 11:39. But Jephthah did to her as he had vowed to do. That is the last act of the tragedy. It is only suggested. No angel of the Lord interposed, as in the story of Isaac, with an injunction Lay not thine hand on the maiden (cf. Gen 22:12). No prophet had yet arisen to ask, Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Mic 6:7). From the Christian point of view we may, with Dante, think Jephthah was wrong
Blindly to execute a rash resolve,
Whom better it had suited to exclaim
I have done ill, than to redeem his pledge
By doing worse.
But his blindness detracts nothing from the heroism of his daughter, who gave herself, without a murmur, to her people and her God; who was led to the altar, not as a bride adorned for her husband, but as a virgin-martyr; whose love of life was less than her love of her country and its freedom. Did not Byron rightly divine that she smiled as she died? [The view that she was not put to death but doomed to remain unwedded, is almost certainly incorrect, though it has been recently revived by Benzinger.A. S. P.]
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
11:29 Then the {l} 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 of Ammon.
(l) That is, the spirit of strength and zeal.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jephthah’s vow and victory 11:29-33
God’s Spirit then clothed Jephthah, giving the promise of divine enablement and victory in the approaching encounter with the Ammonite army (Jdg 11:29; cf. Jdg 3:10; Jdg 6:34; Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:19; 1Sa 10:10).
"The spirit may be an effective power; but it seems that it is not automatically effective, at least not in terms of effecting deliverance. The spirit comes upon or possesses human beings; therefore, it must be embodied with cooperation and faithfulness if deliverance is to be effected . . ." [Note: McCann, p. 82.]
Jephthah traveled through Gilead, in the tribal territory of Gad, and eastern Manasseh, to the north, recruiting soldiers. He led his troops back to Mizpah in Gilead (cf. Jdg 11:11) and then eastward into Ammon.
Jephthah made a vow before going into battle. He promised that if the Lord would give him victory he would give God whatever came out of the door of his house when he returned from the conflict (Jdg 11:30-31). He would offer this person or animal either as a sacrifice of dedication to the Lord or as a burnt offering of worship (Jdg 11:31).
"The making of the vow is an act of unfaithfulness. Jephthah desires to bind God rather than embrace the gift of the spirit. What comes to him freely, he seeks to earn and manipulate. The meaning of his words is doubt, not faith; it is control, not courage. To such a vow the deity makes no reply." [Note: Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror, p. 97.]
Compare Gideon’s similar response to the gift of God’s Spirit. The masculine gender of the Hebrew word translated "whatever" can apply to a person or an animal, but Jephthah was probably thinking of an animal.
"His negotiations with the elders, his diplomacy with the Ammonites, and his vow, have all amply displayed Jephthah’s facility with words. Jephthah, we know, is good at opening his mouth. (How ironical that his name means literally ’he opens’!). What has precipitated the crisis with his daughter is that he has opened his mouth to Yahweh, that is, he has tried to conduct his relationship with God in the same way that he has conducted his relationships with men. He has debased religion (a vow, an offering) into politics." [Note: Barry Webb, "The Theme of the Jephthah Story (Judges 10:6-12:7)," Reformed Theological Review 45:2 (May-August 1986):42.]
Webb pointed out, in the helpful article quoted above, that Israel had done the same thing Jephthah did. This tendency to negotiate with God marked and marred her relationship with Yahweh during this period of her history.
The Lord gave Jephthah success in the battle, and he destroyed 20 cities in Ammon. He broke the Ammonites’ strong power, so they ceased oppressing Israel (Jdg 11:33).
The writer wrote Jdg 11:29-32 using a chiastic structure. This section begins and ends with the promise and fulfillment of God giving Jephthah victory. When the Spirit came on him there was no doubt that he would defeat the enemy. The center of the chiasm relates Jephthah bargaining with God to ensure victory. He did not need to make this vow. He had already testified that God had given His people victory in the past (Jdg 11:21; Jdg 11:24). Apparently his faith was not as strong as it might have been, and this weakness led him to seek a guarantee of success by making the vow.
Jephthah’s vow reveals that he had a rather unenlightened concept of Yahweh. His commitment to the Lord was strangely strong, but his understanding of God was not Scriptural. He did not know what the Law revealed about Yahweh, or he had forgotten this. His concept of God bears the marks of Canaanite influence. His belief that he needed to bargain with and bribe God to get Him to bless His people was unfortunate (cf. Jer 29:11). He also believed that Yahweh took pleasure in what hurts people, that He is sadistic. This idea is also inaccurate and pagan. Furthermore he believed that God might abandon him before he finished his battle. God had promised that He would not do this as long as His people trusted and obeyed Him (Deu 28:1; Deu 28:7). Jephthah made his tragic vow because he did not have a Scriptural view of God. [Note: See Inrig, p. 195.] He should have vowed to offer the inhabitants of the cities he would conquer as sacrifices to God (Num 21:2).
The secret to Jephthah’s success was his essential trust in and obedience to Yahweh. This is always the key to spiritual success. His life teaches us that God can and does use people with tough backgrounds. God does not produce His instruments with a cookie cutter. Each one is different. He even uses people whom others reject because of their families and lifestyles. He prepares His tools throughout their lives and uses everything in their backgrounds to equip them to conduct a unique ministry for Himself.