Day 83 · Part 6: The Judges
Jephthah’s Vow
In the Story
In context
After Tola and Jair, Israel served the gods of the peoples around it. For eighteen years the Philistines and the Ammonites oppressed Israel in Gilead, east of the Jordan, and the Ammonites crossed over to fight Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim (Judges 10:1–9). When Israel cried out, the Lord answered, “Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen” (10:14). They put the foreign gods away, “and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (10:16).
Jephthah, the son of a prostitute, had been driven out by his half-brothers and lived with outlaws in Tob (11:1–3). The elders of Gilead brought him home to lead them. He answered the Ammonite king with Israel’s history (11:12–27; Numbers 21:21–25). Before the battle he vowed that whatever came out of his house to meet him would be the Lord’s, offered as a burnt offering (11:30–31). His daughter, his only child, came out dancing. After she spent two months in the mountains with her friends, her father “did with her according to his vow” (11:34–39). Christians have understood those words in different ways, and the Story adds nothing to them.
When Ephraim threatened Jephthah, Gilead held the fords of the Jordan: anyone who said “Sibboleth” for “Shibboleth” was killed; at that time forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell (12:1–6).
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:9 · Judges says the Lord’s “soul was grieved for the misery of Israel”; Isaiah says, “In all their affliction he was afflicted.”
For families
Jephthah’s daughter, his only child, came out to meet him “with tambourines and with dances” (11:34). She told her father to keep his word, and asked for two months in the mountains with her friends (11:36–38). Every year the daughters of Israel went out for four days “to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah” (11:40).
Jephthah’s daughter wanted her friends with her at a hard time. Who would you want beside you when things are hard?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Judges 10
Loading…
Judges 11
Loading…
Judges 12
Loading…
A hymn for today
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms · words by Elisha A. Hoffman
- What a fellowship, what a joy divine,Leaning on the everlasting arms;What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,Leaning on the everlasting arms.RefrainLeaning, leaning,Safe and secure from all alarms;Leaning, leaning,Leaning on the everlasting arms.
- O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,Leaning on the everlasting arms;O how bright the path grows from day to day,Leaning on the everlasting arms.RefrainLeaning, leaning,Safe and secure from all alarms;Leaning, leaning,Leaning on the everlasting arms.
- What have I to dread, what have I to fear,Leaning on the everlasting arms?I have blessèd peace with my Lord so near,Leaning on the everlasting arms.RefrainLeaning, leaning,Safe and secure from all alarms;Leaning, leaning,Leaning on the everlasting arms.