The Judges · c. 1100 BC
Chapter 6
Jephthah’s Vow
They put away the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
For parents
Jephthah’s mother is called a prostitute (Judges 11:1). Jephthah kills a great many Ammonites (11:33). After the men of Ephraim threaten to burn his house down around him, the men of Gilead kill the runaways from Ephraim at the crossings of the Jordan, forty-two thousand of them in all (12:1–6). Jephthah vows that whatever comes out of his house to meet him when he comes home will be the Lord’s, offered as a burnt offering. His daughter, his only child, comes out, and after two months he does with her as he had vowed. The Story tells it as the Bible does and adds nothing (Judges 11:30–40).
After , a man of rose up to save . His name was , the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, and he lived in Shamir, in the hill country of . For twenty-three years he was Israel’s . Then he died, and he was buried in Shamir.
After him came , a man of . He judged Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty young donkeys, and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead. Those towns are still called Havvoth Jair. Then Jair died, and he was buried in Kamon.
Once again the Israelites did what was evil in the ’s eyes. They served the and the , and the gods of Syria, , , the and the . They left the Lord and didn’t serve him.
The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the power of the Philistines and the Ammonites. That year they harassed and crushed the Israelites. For eighteen years they crushed all the Israelites who lived east of the , in the land of the , which is in Gilead.
The Ammonites crossed the Jordan too, to fight against , against and against the people of Ephraim, and Israel was in great distress.
Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said, “We have sinned against you. We have left our God, and we have served the Baals.”
The Lord said to the Israelites, “Didn’t I save you from the and the Amorites, from the Ammonites and the Philistines? When the Sidonians, the and the Maonites crushed you, you cried out to me, and I saved you from them.
“Yet you have left me and served other gods. So I won’t save you again. Go, cry out to the gods you chose. Let them save you in your time of trouble!”
The Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever you think is best. Only please rescue us today.”
They put away the foreign gods that were among them and served the Lord. And Israel’s misery grieved him.
Then the Ammonites assembled and set up camp in Gilead. The Israelites came together too, and they camped at .
The leaders of Gilead’s people asked one another, “Who will be the man to start the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the head of everyone who lives in Gilead.”
Now of Gilead was a brave and mighty fighter. He was the son of a , and his father was a man named Gilead. Gilead and his wife had sons too. When her sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out. “You won’t inherit anything in our father’s family,” they told him, “because you are the son of another woman.”
So Jephthah ran away from his brothers and made his home in the land of . Outlaws joined him there, and they went out with him.
Some time later, the Ammonites went to war against Israel. When they did, the of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob. “Come and be our chief,” they said to him, “so that we can fight the Ammonites.”
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me? Didn’t you drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now that you are in trouble?”
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “This is why we have come back to you now. Come with us and fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head, over everyone who lives in Gilead.”
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord hands them over to me, will I be your head?”
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be the witness between us. We will certainly do what you say.”
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. At Mizpah, Jephthah said all this in the Lord’s presence.
Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. “What is your quarrel with me?” he asked. “Why have you come to fight against my land?”
The king of the Ammonites gave Jephthah’s messengers his answer. “Because Israel took my land when they came up out of Egypt,” he said, “from the all the way to the and the Jordan. Now give it back peacefully.”
Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites with this answer: “Jephthah says: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, or the Ammonites’ land. When Israel came up from Egypt, they went through the wilderness to the and came to . Then Israel sent messengers to the king of , asking him to let them pass through his land, but the king of Edom wouldn’t listen. They sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
“Then they went on through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They passed along the east side of the land of Moab, and they camped on the other side of the Arnon. They didn’t come inside Moab’s border, because the Arnon was Moab’s border.
“Then Israel sent messengers to , the king of the Amorites, who was king in . ‘Please let us pass through your land to our own place,’ they said. But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people, camped at , and fought against Israel. The Lord, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and all his people over to Israel, and Israel struck them down. So Israel took the whole land of the Amorites who lived there, from the Arnon all the way to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.
“So the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites ahead of his people Israel. Should you take their land now? Won’t you own whatever your god gives you? And we will own the land of everyone the Lord our God has driven out ahead of us. Are you better than the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever argue with Israel? Did he ever go to war with them?
“For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon and its towns, in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon! Why didn’t you take them back in that time? I haven’t wronged you. You are the one wronging me, by making war on me. Let the Lord, the Judge, judge today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
But the king of the Ammonites wouldn’t listen to what Jephthah said.
Then the Lord’s Spirit came on Jephthah. He went through Gilead and , and through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he crossed over toward the Ammonites.
Jephthah made a to the Lord. “If you will really hand the Ammonites over to me,” he said, “whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I come home safely from the Ammonites, it will be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a .”
So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight them, and the Lord put them in his power. He struck them down all the way from Aroer to Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abelcheramim, and killed a great many of them. So the Ammonites were brought under the Israelites’ power.
Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and look: his daughter was coming out to meet him, with tambourines and with dancing. She was his only child. Apart from her he had no son or daughter.
When he saw her, he tore his clothes, the way people did in grief. “Oh, my daughter!” he said. “You have brought me very low, and now you are the one bringing me trouble. I have spoken a vow to the Lord, and I can’t go back on it.”
“My father,” she said to him, “you have spoken a vow to the Lord. Do to me what you said you would, because the Lord has paid back your enemies, the Ammonites, for you.”
Then she said to her father, “Do this for me. Give me two months, so that I can go off to the mountains with my friends and weep over my .”
He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends and mourned her virginity in the mountains.
At the end of the two months she came back to her father, and he did with her as he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went for four days every year to honor the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead.
The men of Ephraim gathered, and they crossed over, heading north. “Why did you cross over to fight the Ammonites,” they asked Jephthah, “and not call us to go with you? We’ll burn your house down around you!”
Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were in a great struggle with the Ammonites. I called you, but you didn’t save me from them. When I saw that you didn’t save me, I risked my life and went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord put them in my power. So why have you come up to me today, to fight against me?”
Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck down the men of Ephraim, because the Ephraimites said, “You Gileadites are runaways from Ephraim, living in the middle of Ephraim and in the middle of Manasseh.”
The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan, the shallow places where the river could be crossed, and held them against the Ephraimites. Whenever a runaway from Ephraim asked to be let across, the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said no, they told him, “Then say ‘Shibboleth.’” He would say “Sibboleth,” because he couldn’t say the word right, and then they grabbed him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed.
Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah of Gilead died, and he was buried in Gilead.
After Jephthah, of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons. He sent his thirty daughters to marry outside his clan, and for his sons he brought home thirty wives from other clans. He judged Israel seven years. Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.
After him, , of the tribe of , judged Israel ten years. Elon of Zebulun died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
After him, the son of Hillel, a man of Pirathon, was Israel’s judge. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, and they rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years. Abdon the son of Hillel died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.