Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 11:2
And Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou [art] the son of a strange woman.
2. And Gilead’s wife ] i.e. the lawful wife in distinction from another woman (1Ch 2:26). In Jdg 11:7 it is the elders of Gilead, not his half-brothers, who drove Jephthah out of his home; the present verse seems to be an attempt to provide some account of Jephthah’s antecedents by inference from his brethren (properly his tribesmen, Jdg 14:3) in Jdg 11:3, and from Jdg 11:7.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Gileadite; so called, either from his father Gilead, Jos 17:1,2, or from the mountain or city of Gilead, the place of his birth or abode.
The son of an harlot, i.e. a bastard; for though such were not ordinarily to enter into the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2, yet God can dispense with his own laws, and hath sometimes done honour to base-born persons, so far, that some of them were admitted to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gilead; one of the children of that ancienter Gilead, Num 32:1; Jos 17:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Thou shalt not inherit in ourfather’s houseAs there were children by the legitimate wife,the son of the secondary one was not entitled to any share of thepatrimony, and the prior claim of the others was indisputable. Hence,as the brothers of Jephthah seem to have resorted to rude and violenttreatment, they must have been influenced by some secret ill-will.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Gilead’s wife bare him sons,…. It seems that, after the birth of Jephthah, Gilead took him a lawful wife, who bore him sons:
and his wife’s sons grew up; to the estate of men:
and they thrust out Jephthah: out of his father’s house, his father in all likelihood being dead, or he would not have suffered it, and what follows confirms it that he was dead:
and said unto him, thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house: as he might not, if the son of an harlot, or of a woman of another tribe, or of a concubine; though as Kimchi, from their Rabbins, observes, the son of such an one might, provided his mother was not an handmaid nor a stranger. And it looks as if this was not rightly done, but that Jephthah was injuriously dealt with by his brethren, of which he complains:
for thou art the son of a strange woman: or of another “woman” e, that was not their father’s lawful wife; or of a woman of another tribe, as the Targum; or of another nation, as others, prostitutes being used to go into foreign countries to get a livelihood, and hide the shame of their families; hence a strange woman, and a harlot, signified the same f, see Jud 11:1.
e “mulieris alterius”, Pagninus, Montanus; “exterae”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator so Tigurine version. f “Pro uxore hanc peregrinam”, Terent. Audria, act 1, scen. 1. l. 118.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) They thrust out Jephthah.This was in perfect accordance with the law (Deu. 23:2-3), and with family rules and traditions. Abraham had sent the son of Hagar and the sons of Keturah to found other settlements (Gen. 21:10; Gen. 25:6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. They thrust out Jephthah Their father, Gilead, was a man of wealth and power, and they were unwilling that the son of a strange woman and a harlot should share with them the paternal inheritance. Compare Gen 21:10; Gen 25:6. The law placed a bastard on the same footing with an Ammonite or a Moabite. Deu 23:2-3. Neither could enter the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation. Mark that he who by the law was placed in the same category with the Ammonites was called to be the conqueror of those incestuous sons of Lot.
Strange woman Hebrew, another woman. “Other is here to be taken in a bad sense, as in the expression other gods. As those are spurious gods, so another woman is a spurious wife.” Cassel.
‘ And Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house. For you are the son of another woman.’
It would seem that Jephthah was Gilead’s first child, whom he took into his house. But then his own wife bore him children, and as they grew up the question of inheritance cropped up. One problem was that he was the firstborn, (although not legally), and assertive. We can understand why they feared for the future. But even the child of a prostitute could expect some kind of inheritance from his father when he was a part of the household (compare Gen 25:6), and he certainly had a right to his father’s reasonable provision. They, however, begrudged him even that, which was why they drove him out. As Gilead would presumably not have permitted this we must presume that he was either ill, or more probably dying, although it may be that he was driven to it by a constantly nagging wife, as Abraham partly was by Sarah (Gen 21:10-11).
Yet as a bastard Jephthah and all his descendants would be barred from entering the assembly of Yahweh, that is from becoming full Israelites, for ten (or ‘a number of’) generations (Deu 23:2). It took that long for the taint to be removed. His position was an unhappy one. Interestingly the same was true for their foe, the Ammonites (Deu 23:3), or even worse, because their barring was ‘for ever’.
Jdg 11:2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou [art] the son of a strange woman.
Ver. 2. They thrust out Jephthah. ] Little thinking that they should one day be glad to be beholden to him. It is good for great men, who now work their own wills without wit, to remember that greatness may decay, the wheel may turn, and they may have need of those they now slight; as Sir James Paulet had of Cardinal Wolsey when he came to be Lord Chancellor, whom the said Sir James had, out of humour, set by the heels when he was a poor schoolmaster; a and as Sir Francis Askew had of Archbishop Holgat, whom he had much molested in law when he was a country minister. b
“ Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere quenquam. ”
The Pope, who is the devil’s by-blow, was worthily thrust out of England A.D. 1245, as before he had been out of France and Arragon, it being said that the Pope was but like a mouse in a satchel, or a snake in a man’s bosom, &c. England had been his ass; but at length she cast her rider, and would no longer bear his burdens. c
For thou art the son of a strange woman. a Negotiat. of Card. Wolsey, p. 2.
b Godw., Catal., p. 625.
c Speed, 622.
strange = foreign.
thrust out: Gen 12:10, Deu 23:2, Gal 4:30
a strange: Pro 2:16, Pro 5:3, Pro 5:20, Pro 6:24-26
Reciprocal: Jdg 11:1 – an harlot Act 7:39 – but
11:2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou [art] the son of a {a} strange woman.
(a) That is, of a harlot as in Jud 11:1.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes