Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 11:24
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
24. Chemosh thy god the Lord our God ] What Jehovah was to Israel Chemosh was to Moab; Num 21:29, Moab. St. passim. Obviously Moabites are in the speaker’s mind, not Ammonites, whose national god was Milcom. According to ancient ideas each nation had its own god, whose influence extended over the country where he was worshipped and no further; Mic 4:5, cf. 1Sa 26:19, Deu 4:19 etc.; an Israelite worshipper of Jehovah would not, therefore, deny the divinity of the gods of his neighbours. A belief in the sole Godhead of Jehovah had not yet been reached.
Will not thou giveth thee to possess ] Read Wilt not thou possess (the territory of) those whom Chemosh thy god dispossesseth? omitting thee, and thus making the two halves of the verse correspond.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 24. Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee] As if he had said: “It is a maxim with you, as it is among all nations, that the lands which they conceive to be given them by their gods, they have an absolute right to, and should not relinquish them to any kind of claimant. You suppose that the land which you possess was given you by your god Chemosh and therefore you will not relinquish what you believe you hold by a Divine right. Now, we know that Jehovah, our God, who is the Lord of heaven and earth, has given the Israelites the land of the Amorites; and therefore we will not give it up.” The ground of Jephthah’s remonstrance was sound and good.
1. The Ammonites had lost their lands in their contests with the Amorites.
2. The Israelites conquered these lands from the Amorites, who had waged a most unprincipled war against them.
3. God, who is the Maker of heaven and earth had given those very lands as a Divine grant to the Israelites.
4. In consequence of this they had possession of them for upwards of three hundred years.
5. These lands were never reclaimed by the Ammonites, though they had repeated opportunities of doing it, whilst the Israelites dwelt in Heshbon, in Aroer, and in the coasts of Arnon; but they did not reclaim them because they knew that the Israelites held them legally. The present pretensions of Ammon were unsupported and unjustifiable.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He speaks according to their fond and absurd opinion. The Ammonites and Moabites got their land by right of war, and conquest of the old inhabitants, whom they cast out; and this success, though given them by the true God, for Lots sake, Deu 2:19, they impiously and ridiculously ascribe to their god Chemosh, whose gift they owned to be a firm and sufficient title.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess?…. Chemosh was the idol of the Moabites, see
Nu 21:29, which has led some to think, that the present king of Ammon was also king of Moab, and who insisted on that part of the country, which formerly belonged to Moab, to be delivered to him, as well as that which had belonged to Ammon. Now since the land, which they now inhabited, as well as what they had lost, they had taken away from others, De 2:10, having conquered them, and which they ascribed to the help and assistance they had from their idol, and possessed as his gift; Jephthah argues with them “ad hominem”, from the less to the greater:
so whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess; we have surely as good a claim to what the Lord our God gives to us in a way of conquest, as you have, or can think you have, to what your idol, as you suppose, has given you: however, what we have got, or get this way, we are determined to possess, and keep possession of.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) Chemosh thy god.The expression shows the close connection between Ammon and Moab. Chemosh was distinctively the god of Moab, and Moloch of Ammon; but the two nations were of kindred blood and allied institutions (Jdg. 3:12-13). The name Chemosh means subduer, and there is here, perhaps, a tacit reference to the wild popular song of triumph over the conquest of Heshbon, in which Chemosh is taunted by name (Num. 21:29; comp. Jer. 48:7). The clause might be rendered, Whatever Jehovah our God hath dispossessed before us, that take we in possession.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Wilt thou not The thought involved in the previous verse is here expanded in a sort of argumentum ad hominem. You yourselves, it is urged, would most earnestly insist on possessing that which your god had given into your hands; and shall not we do the same?
Chemosh The great deity of the Moabites and Ammonites. “Jewish tradition affirms that he was worshipped under the symbol of a black star; and Maimonides states that his worshippers went bareheaded, and abstained from the use of garments sewn together by the needle. The black star, the connexion with Arabian idolatry, and the fact that Chemosh is coupled with Moloch, favour the theory that he had some analogy with the planet Saturn.” Kitto’s Cyclopaedia. He is here spoken of as a local and national deity, but it is not necessary to assume that Jephthah himself believed in his real existence and divinity. He speaks with respect, however, of the religion of his foe, and this fact, together with the recent existence of Ammonitish idolatry in Israel, (Jdg 10:6,) affords some ground to believe that there was still among the Israelites too much reverence for the gods of the heathen.
The Lord Jehovah. Note the antithesis. Chemosh thy god Jehovah our God. The Ammonites held both to be national deities. The more ignorant Israelites always inclined to the same view; the well-taught Israelite recognised that Jehovah was indeed the national God, but also God over all; and the truly pious held him to be sole God, all else being “a lie.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ Will you not possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them we will possess.”
Chemosh was in fact the god of Moab, not the god of Ammon. Their god was Melek (Molech, Milcom). Thus many have claimed that Jephthah here made a mistake. But he has made no mistake. The king of Ammon was arguing about and laying claim to land that had in times past, before the Amorites had captured it, belonged to Moab, and he was making his claim on those very grounds (Jdg 11:13). From his viewpoint that land had once belonged to Chemosh. So Jephthah wanted him to face up to the fact that it was Chemosh who had relinquished it to the Amorites (Num 21:29).
Essentially, he was saying, it was Chemosh, their own god (one of the gods of the confederacy) who had not given its possession to the Moabites, nor to the Ammonites, and it was this Chemosh to whom the king of the Ammonites was in the last resort appealing, Chemosh who had given it to the Amorites. Let them therefore possess what he had patently given to them, and recognise that he gave that other land to the Amorites and that Yahweh has take that land from the Amorites and given it to Israel. And that that is why they now claimed possession of it.
Once we recognise that the king of Ammon was speaking on behalf of an Ammonite/Moabite alliance (which he had to be to make the claim for the land that he made) the difficulty disappears. He was speaking on behalf of both Melek and Chemosh, and in relation to that particular land, of Chemosh. It was Chemosh who could theoretically claim a past right to the land, not Melek.
We must also recognise the possibility that Jephthah was cleverly trying to sow the seeds of division between the two allies. If he could get them to argue Melek against Chemosh, and that it was the king of Moab who should be asking for the land and not the king of Ammon, he would have divided their ranks.
At this point we can consider the effect these arguments, read out before his own men, were having on them. They would be chuckling and cheering and feeling strongly fortified. And his hope was that when the Ammon/Moabite leadership and their men heard it they would be feeling the opposite.
Jephthah now went on to point out that their delay in making this claim itself demonstrated that they had no case, and that no one in the past had dared to argue with Israel about it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 11:24. Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god, &c. This is plainly an argument ad hominem, in which Jephthah does not by any means confess Chemosh to be a god; but only argues with the king of the Ammonites, from the opinion which he and his people had, that Chemosh, whom they worshipped, was a god; and that, according to the opinion which all nations held of their gods, they owed their conquests to him. He, therefore, appeals to the king, whether he would not keep what his god had given him, and look upon it as rightfully possessed by him; and if so, continues he, upon the very same foundation, we also will possess what Jehovah, our God, has given us. Wretched, indeed, must be the cause of infidelity, which finds it necessary to pervert so clear a passage as the present in order to serve and support it! Thus did Voltaire.
REFLECTIONS.Jephthah now being constituted captain, before he draws the sword of war, seeks a peaceable accommodation.
1. He sends to enquire the reason of this invasion of the Ammonitish king; as they had given him no offence, he wishes him quietly to retire, and not oblige him to use force to repel force. Note; We must follow peace with all men, and never seek litigious redress till every fair proposal has been rejected.
2. The Ammonite, unwilling to plead the law of arms, trumps up a demand of a former title, that, at least, he might seem to cover his pretensions with a specious plea of justice. Note; (1.) They, who are destitute of conscience or honesty, are not willing to appear so. (2.) They who seek a pretext for a quarrel will never be at a loss to find one.
3. Jephthah makes a most satisfactory reply to the unreasonable demand. The lands in question between Arnon and Jabbok were not in possession of the Ammonites, but of the Amorites, when Israel dispossessed them; and, though the land might originally belong to the Ammonites, they had suffered them peaceably to enjoy it, and quitted to them the title. So far were the people of Israel from offering the least violence to the children of Lot or Esau, that when refused a passage through their countries, though able, if they had chosen it, to have opened their way by force, they rather underwent the fatigue of a long march to compass their territories, than set a foot upon them, much less seize them for their own use; nor would they have touched the land of Sihon, if himself had not been the aggressor, and not only refused to let them go through, but also came out, unprovoked, to attack them, and thus brought his ruin on his own head. God having delivered Sihon into their hand, his land became theirs by the gift of God, nor was there the least reason why they should conquer it for the Ammonites. He appeals to him, what would be his own conduct in a like case? Would he quit what he thought he had conquered, under the influence of his idol god, or give up his own land to the original inhabitants whom he had dispossessed? No, surely. Why, then, should he expect it of the Israelites? He pleads farther their uninterrupted enjoyment of this country for near three hundred years; during which time neither Balaak nor his successors ever pretended to claim it; and the Moabites had an equal, if not a better right to it, than the Ammonites; so that, on all these accounts, the war must appear most unjust and unprovoked; and therefore Jephthah appeals to God for a decision of the controversy, if he should persevere in his demands. Note; (1.) When we have justice and truth on our side, we may confidently appeal to the God of truth for a decision in our favour. (2.) When our own harmless and inoffensive conduct speaks our peaceableness, it is at their peril who then make themselves ready for battle.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 11:24 Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
Ver. 24. That which Chemosh thy god giveth thee. ] Namely, The land of the Zanzummims, Deu 2:19-20 which their god Chemosh had not in very deed given them, for “we know that an idol is nothing in the world,” 1Co 8:4 and nothing he can give, Jer 10:5 but only the king of Ammon thought so; like as in 2Ch 28:23 , it is said that “the gods of Damascus smote” or plagued Ahaz, that is, in the opinion of Ahaz.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Wilt not thou . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. Jephthah does not recognize Chemosh as a god. The emphasis is on “thy” and “our”, and is the argument a fortiori: and, taking them on their own ground, it is the argumentum ad hominem.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Wilt not thou possess: This is simply an argumentum ad hominem; in which Jephthah argues on this principles recognized by the king of Ammon. As if he had said, “You suppose that the land which you possess was given you by your god Chemosh; and therefore will not relinquish what you believe you hold by a divine right. Now we know that Jehovah, our God, has given us the land of the Israelites; and therefore we will not give it up.”
Chemosh: Num 21:29, 1Ki 11:7, Jer 48:7, Jer 48:46
whomsoever: Deu 9:4, Deu 9:5, Deu 18:12, Jos 3:10, Psa 44:2, Psa 78:55, Mic 4:5
Reciprocal: Num 20:21 – wherefore Deu 2:21 – but the Lord Jos 6:2 – the king Rth 1:15 – her gods 2Ki 1:2 – god 2Ki 23:13 – Chemosh 2Ch 20:11 – to cast us Jer 48:13 – ashamed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 11:24. Wilt not thou possess, &c. He does not call Chemosh a god; but only argues from the opinion that they had of him, which was such as all nations entertained of their gods, namely, that they owed their conquests to them: to whom, therefore, they gave thanks for all their victories. The Ammonites and Moabites got their land by conquest of the old inhabitants, whom they cast out; and their success, though given them by the true God, for Lots sake, Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19, they impiously ascribed to their god Chemosh, whose gift they owned to be a sufficient title. Jephthah, therefore, here appeals to themselves, whether they would not keep what they believed their god had given them, and consider it as lawfully possessed by them. So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out, them will we possess By the very same title whereby the Moabites and Ammonites conceived that they possessed the country in which they now lived, and from whence they had driven out the ancient inhabitants.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11:24 Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the {h} LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
(h) For we should believe and obey God more than you your idols.