10So the Israelites cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.” 11And the LORD said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver youa from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. 13Yet you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. 14Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” 15And the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you; but deliver us this day!” 16So they put away the foreign gods from among them and worshiped the LORD; and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.
17Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the Israelites came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. 18The commanders of the people of Gilead said to one another, “Who will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
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a Heb lacks Did I not deliver you
10.1–5 In addition to the major judges, Judges preserves a list of others who “judged Israel” (10.1–5; 12.7–15). Family details (10.4; 12.9, 14) glorify their wealth and eminence, but (with the exception of Jephthah) no narratives survive about them. The years of service of the “minor judges” are stated precisely, not in round numbers as in the preceding chronological notices.
10.1–2 Tola, possibly “Worm” in Hebrew. Shamir seems to be a reference to Samaria. In what sense Tola acted to deliver Israel is unclear. Perhaps after Abimelech what was needed was twenty-three years of effective leadership! Tola and Puah (as Puvah) elsewhere represent clans of Issachar (Gen 46.13).
10.3–5 Jair was a powerful chief in Gilead (north-central Transjordan), elsewhere celebrated as a pioneer in the occupation of Gilead (Josh 13.30; 1 Kings 4.13). Havvoth-jair means “tent villages of Jair.”
10.6–18 These verses resume the framework cycle (see note on 2.11–23). Oppression by the Ammonites in Transjordan is the setting for Jephthah’s career, here given an elaborate and ironic introduction by a Deuteronomistic narrator (see Introduction).
10.6 A list of seven categories of alien gods emphasizes the enormity of Israel’s apostasy. The Baals and the Astartes. See note on 2.13.
10.7–8 Ammonites lived beyond the Jordan, to the east and south of Israel’s territory Gilead.
10.10–14 The cyclical pattern described by (see note on) 2.11–23 is interrupted for a third confrontation between Israel and the Lord (see 2.1–5; 6.7–10). Now the LORD responds directly to Israel’s appeal with a sarcastic let them deliver you.
10.15 Genuine repentance, nowhere else explicit in Judges, evokes the Lord’s compassion for Israel’s suffering.
10.16 No longer bear. The Lord’s affection for Israel is described in strikingly emotional terms. To put away the foreign gods may reflect a time-honored ritual in which idols were ceremonially buried (Gen 35.2–4; Josh 24.14).
10.17 Ammonites were called to arms, technical language, as in Barak’s muster (4.10) and Gideon’s muster (6.35; 7.23–24). In contrast, the leaderless Israelites merely came together.
10.18 The commanders offer a new title, head over all, to anyone who will assume leadership.
JUDGES 11
Jephthah
1Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute, was a mighty warrior. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah away, saying to him, “You shall not inherit anything in our father’s house; for you are the son of another woman.” 3Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him.
4After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, so that we may fight with the Ammonites.” 7But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father’s house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?” 8The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Nevertheless, we have now turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say.” 11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.
12Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What is there between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” 14Once again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites 15and said to him: “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Seaa and came to Kadesh. 17Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let us pass through your land’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. 18Then they journeyed through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, arrived on the east side of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19Israel then sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass through your land to our country.’ 20But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel. 21Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. 22They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23So now the LORD, the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place? 24Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones to possess everything that the LORD our God has conquered for our benefit? 25Now are you any better than King Balak son of Zippor of Moab? Did he ever enter into conflict with Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? 26While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that are along the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? 27It is not I who have sinned against you, but you are the one who does me wrong by making war on me. Let the LORD, who is judge, decide today for the Israelites or for the Ammonites.” 28But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message that Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah’s Vow
29Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” 32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand. 33He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.
> Jephthah’s Daughter
34Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36She said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.” 37And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wanderb on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” 38“Go,” he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that 40for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
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a Or Sea of Reeds
b Cn: Heb go down
11.1–11 Jephthah is introduced to readers by the circumstances of his birth, his expulsion by his half brothers, and his mercenary associates.
11.1 Like Gideon, Jephthah is a mighty warrior (6.11–12).
11.3 Jephthah’s career as an outlaw is similar to David’s early rise to power (1 Sam 22.2).
11.6 In contrast to the proposal made in 10.18, the elders first offer a lower-ranking position of military commander, here not Hebrew sar (10.18), but qatsin, merely a ranking officer (Josh 10.24).
11.7–10 Jephthah negotiates for a better offer. The elders increase the ante by using the term head (v. 8; Hebrew ro’sh). Perhaps qatsin (see note on 11.6) refers to a temporary role as field commander, while ro’sh refers to a permanent post, chief over all the inhabitants of Gilead (v. 8).
11.11 To conclude the negotiations, Jephthah validates the agreement by reciting it before the LORD at Mizpah (Hebrew, “Lookout” or “Watchtower”), a shrine somewhere east of the Jordan.
11.12–28 This is the only narrative of Israelite diplomacy in Judges and one of the clearest examples of the genre of the indictment (Hebrew riv, “to conduct a lawsuit”). Two delegations are sent. The first (vv. 12–13) addresses a brief, direct question, receives an equally brief, direct answer, and goes home. The second (vv. 14–27) makes an elaborate appeal to historical precedent (cf. Num chs. 21–22) in response to the answer given to the first delegation and receives no reply.
11.13 The Ammonite king charges that Israel has illegitimately occupied land directly west of the Ammonite homeland, north of the Arnon River and south of the Jabbok. Statements by the second Israelite delegation (vv. 15, 18b) indicate that Ammon is claiming this territory based on the fact that it formerly belonged to Moab.
11.15–27 Jephthah asserts that Israel did not take any land of Moab or land of the Ammonites (v. 15). Rather, Israel acquired it by wresting it from the Amorite king Sihon (vv. 21–22) three hundred years earlier (v. 26). For the tradition of Israel’s progress through Transjordan, see Num 21; Deut 2.
11.18 Jephthah emphasizes that Israel never encroached into Moab proper. Texts referring to the premonarchical period agree that the Arnon was the boundary of Moab; it is the territory north of the Arnon that is in dispute.
11.19–21 See Num 21.21–24.
11.20 Jephthah cites how, in connection with Sihon’s territory, Israel fought only when negotiations failed.
11.24 Chemosh was properly god of Moab, not Ammon, but the region under dispute was associated with him. Early Israel supposed that the gods of other peoples really existed and were active within the limits of their own territories.
11.25 In Num 22–24 a major theme is the great labor exerted to communicate with King Balak son of Zippor of Moab. Enter into conflict, i.e., “contend” through diplomacy (Hebrew riv; cf. note on 11.12–28).
11.26 Three hundred years approximates the book’s chronology. The years of oppression and successive judges thus far total 319.
11.27 The noun judge (used of the Lord only here in Judges) and the verb decide share the Hebrew root shpt. Cf. 1 Sam 24.15.
11.29 The spirit of the LORD empowers Jephthah, but only after a long delay (contrast 3.10; 6.34), perhaps an echo of the Lord’s earlier unwillingness to deliver Israel (10.13–16).
11.30–31 Jephthah’s reckless, egocentric vow reveals a tragic flaw in his character. Instead of whoever, though, Jephthah may have intended “whatever.” Early Israelites often shared their houses with livestock. Burnt offering implies a farm animal, although human sacrifice was sometimes practiced in Israel (2 Kings 16.3; Ezek 20.25–26.31; cf. Gen 22).
11.33 Aroer, Minnith, and Abel-keramim were all located in the district west of the Ammonite capital, Rabbah Ammon.
11.34 A traditional role of women was singing with timbrels and…dancing after victory (Ex 15.20–21) to welcome the victors home (1 Sam 18.6–7). Cf. the Song of Deborah, esp. 5.28–30.
11.35 Tore his clothes. Jephthah is distraught, but also sounds as though he is blaming his daughter for what happened.
11.36 Ancient readers would agree with Jephthah’s daughter that a vow once made is irrevocable (cf. Deut 23.22–23; Prov 20.25).
11.37 Bewail my virginity. For a woman to die without becoming a mother was seen as a terrible misfortune (reemphasized in v. 39). The daughter is courageous, devout, and takes control of how she will spend the last months of her life. Jephthah too experiences tragedy; he is now childless (cf. v. 34).
11.39–40 Jephthah’s daughter establishes the precedent for an annual ritual of remembrance, otherwise unknown.
JUDGES 12
Intertribal Dissension
1The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you!” 2Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were engaged in conflict with the Ammonites who oppressed usa severely. But when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. 3When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand, and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?” 4Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites—in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.”b 5Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 6they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
7Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in his town in Gilead.c
Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
8After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 9He had thirty sons. He gave his thirty daughters in marriage outside his clan and brought in thirty young women from outside for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. 10Then Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem.
11After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. 12Then Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
13After him Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 14He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys; he judged Israel eight years. 15Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
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a Gk OL, Syr H: Heb lacks who oppressed us
b Meaning of Heb uncertain: Gk omits because…Manasseh
c Gk: Heb in the towns of Gilead
12.1–6 The final episodes of the career of Jephthah were added as a sequel, loosely joined to the preceding sections.
12.1–4 The powerful tribe of Ephraim initiates hostilities with Gilead. Jephthah reacts vigorously.
12.1–2 The Ephraimites claim to have been excluded from the muster of forces against the Ammonites, essentially the same complaint they made to Gideon in the Midianite crisis (8.1). Jephthah replies that he called them. Which side are readers to believe? The book reports no appeal to Ephraim made by Jephthah.
12.3 The argument ends with a question, Why…fight against me? as did the unsuccessful negotiations with the Ammonite king (11.26).
12.4 The cause of war is an obscure taunt. The Ephraimites apparently mean that Gileadites are nothing but fugitives or refugees from Ephraim and so are not a real tribe, just a part of Ephraim and Manasseh.
12.5–6 Jephthah is not mentioned in this concluding story.
12.5 Gilead blocks the way back across the Jordan and uses a password to detect Ephraimites. These are presumably escapees from the battle in v. 4, and the phrase fugitives from Ephraim grimly echoes their earlier insult (v. 4).
12.6 The test turns on regional differences in pronunciation of the word Shibboleth.
12.7–15 Jephthah is not only a “major judge” he was also cataloged in a list of “minor judges” (10.1–5; 12.7–15) into which the stories of the Ammonite crisis were inserted.
12.8 The “minor judges” are all northern and eastern figures, so this Bethlehem is the one located in Lower Galilee near Zebulun’s border with Asher (Josh 19.15).
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