Judges 11:1 to Judges 12:7. _Jephthah's victory over the Ammonites, his vow, and punishment of the men of Ephraim_ The Ammonite invasion made it necessary for the Israelites on the east of Jordan to find a leader: there was nothing for it but to choose Jephthah, the warlike captain of a band of fre... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jephthah_ Hebr. _Yiphtaḥ_, probably a shortened form of Yiphtaḥ-el = _God will open_; cf. Pethah-iah Ezra 10:23. The full form occurs as the name of a town Joshua 19:14; Joshua 19:27. _the Gileadite_ See on Judges 10:3. The land of Gilead generally included the country E. of Jordan between the W.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Gilead's wife_ i.e. the lawful wife in distinction from _another woman_(1 Chronicles 2:26). In Judges 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 inferen... [ Continue Reading ]
_the land of Tob_ A Syrian district near the territory of Gilead (Judges 11:5), 2Sa 10:6; 2 Samuel 10:8; cf. 1Ma 5:13; 1Ma 5:2 Mace. 12:17 (probably the same place). A town now called eṭ-Ṭaiyibe between Der-ât and Bostra perhaps preserves the name and indicates the situation. _vain fellows_ i.e. wo... [ Continue Reading ]
_after a while_ An indefinite mark of time as in Judges 14:8; Judges 15:1. The wording implies that the Ammonites have not been mentioned before; this is another reason for believing that the introductory notice Judges 10:6-18 was composed later than the present passage.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it was so … against Israel_ These words, which merely repeat Judges 11:4, presuppose that the history has already begun, and were perhaps inserted to connect with Judges 10:17 f. In some recensions of the LXX they are wanting, in others Judges 11:4 is omitted. _the elders of Gilead_ means no m... [ Continue Reading ]
_chief_ i.e. commander in war, Joshua 10:24; Daniel 11:18 (RVm.); the same word as the Arabic _ḳâḍi_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and drive me out of my father's house_ See Judges 11:2 _n._Apparently custom allowed certain rights to the sons of concubines, as in the ancient Babylonian code of Ḫammurabi; S. A. Cook, _Moses and Ḫammurabi_, p. 141.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore are we turned again_ i.e. this being so, since we have driven thee out. Instead of answering the objection directly, the elders state the reason for the reply they give. For this idiom in conversation cf. Judges 8:7; Genesis 4:15; Genesis 30:15; 1 Kings 22:19. _head … Gilead_ Similarly J... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall I be …?_ Rather IT IS I WHO AM TO BE YOUR HEAD, accepting the agreement in Judges 11:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_witness_ Note marg.; the expression only here. The invocation of Jehovah's presence is necessary to complete a solemn agreement; cf. Genesis 31:49.... [ Continue Reading ]
The second half of the verse comes awkwardly after the announcement of Jephthah's promotion; and as it stands _his words_must refer to Judges 11:9. But would he repeat them to give additional solemnity to the agreement? He would be more likely to make the elders repeat their promise _before Jehovah_... [ Continue Reading ]
_with me_ i.e. the people represented by Jephthah; see on Judges 11:17. _my land … from Arnon even unto Jabbok_ The Arnon, now called Wadi el-Môjîb, descends from the E. and flows into the Dead Sea at a point almost in the middle of the eastern shore; it formed the southern boundary of Moab at the t... [ Continue Reading ]
_nor the land of … Ammon_ So Numbers 21:24; Deuteronomy 2:19; Deuteronomy 2:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the wilderness … the Red Sea … Kadesh_ The route is generalized, perhaps from reminiscences of Numbers 14:25; Numbers 20:14 (JE), as Moore suggests. It is now generally held that Kadesh is to be identified with -Ain Ḳadîs, 50 m. S. of Beer-sheba. Judges 11:16-18 agree with JE's narrative in Num., a... [ Continue Reading ]
Abbreviated from Numbers 20:14-18 JE. Edom lay to the S. and S.E. of Palestine. There is no mention elsewhere of the embassy to Moab. _Let me, I pray thee_ The nation as a whole is personified, a not uncommon idiom; cf. Judges 11:12; Judges 20:23; Numbers 20:18 etc. In Judges 11:19; Numbers 20:17;... [ Continue Reading ]
_compassed the land of Edom_ Numbers 21:4 b; cf. Deuteronomy 2:1. _on the other side of Arnon_ Clearly the country _north_of the Arnon, viewed from the march from the south; cf. Numbers 21:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
Again abbreviated from JE's narrative, Numbers 21:21-24, which is further expanded in Deuteronomy 2:26-37. _Sihon … the king of Heshbon_ So frequently, e.g. Numbers 21:26; Deuteronomy 2:24; Deuteronomy 2:26; Deuteronomy 2:30; Deuteronomy 3:6; Deuter [ Continue Reading ]
_Jahaz_ Numbers 21:23; Deuteronomy 2:32; a strong place on the high _table-land_(_mîshor_) of Moab (Jeremiah 48:21), in the country north of the Arnon given to Reuben (Joshua 13:18 P), near Kedçmoth (Joshua 21:36 f.), and thus in the S.E. of Sihon's territory, between Dibon and Medebah (Euseb., _Ono... [ Continue Reading ]
Cf. Numbers 21:24 a.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Chemosh thy god … the Lord our God_ What Jehovah was to Israel Chemosh was to Moab; Numbers 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 th... [ Continue Reading ]
_art thou … better than Balak_ Though the king of Ammon is supposed to be addressed, the question really aims at some king of Moab: is he a better man than his predecessor Balak, who did not dare to fight Israel? The verse agrees with Numbers 22-24, where no mention is made of a war between Moab and... [ Continue Reading ]
_While Israel dwelt_ Rather _When I. settled_. For _her towns_see on Judges 1:27. _Aroer … Arnon_ The LXX reads _Jazer_(cod. A) … _Jordan_(so Vulgate), which looks like the original text. _Jazer_lay on the Ammonite border, Numbers 21:24 (LXX), 32, 2 Samuel 24:5, and is associated with Heshbon in Jos... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord … be judge_ Cf. Genesis 31:53 1 Samuel 24:12; 1 Samuel 24:15. Even in early Israel Jehovah could be appealed to as the Judge, who in the quarrels of men or nations was known to take the side of justice against unfair aggression. The fundamental difference between Jehovah and the gods of th... [ Continue Reading ]
An editorial hand has attempted to pick up the thread of the narrative after the long interpolation, Judges 11:12. _Then the spirit of the Lord came upon_ J. may well have stood originally at the beginning of Judges 11:32; for elsewhere the access of the divine spirit takes effect at once in a deed... [ Continue Reading ]
_vowed a vow_ The sequel of Judges 11:11. It was a solemn vow made deliberately at a sanctuary (Judges 11:35) under stress of circumstances, like Jacob's at Bethel Genesis 28:20 f., Genesis 31:13 E, Hannah's at Shiloh 1 Samuel 1:11, Absalom's at Hebron 2 Samuel 15:7 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
_whatsoever … it shall be … I will offer it up_ WHOSOEVER … HE _shall be … I will offer_ HIM _up_, so LXX, Vulgate, Peshitto Jephthah had in his mind a human victim 1 [44] [44] Early Arabian religion before Mohammed furnishes a parallel: "Al-Mundhir [king of al-Ḥîrah] had made a vow that on a certa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Aroer_ Probably not the Aroer of Judges 11:16, but another place of the same name E. of Rabbath-ammon, Joshua 13:25, on the Ammonite border. _Minnith_is identified by Eusebius (_Onom. Sacr._280, 44; 140, 3) with Maanith, 4 rom. miles from Heshbon, on the way to Philadelphia (Rabbath-ammon). _Abel-c... [ Continue Reading ]
_his daughter … with timbrels and with dances_ For women celebrating a victory cf. Exodus 15:20; 1 Samuel 18:6; Psalms 68:11. The last half of the verse is phrased with much beauty, lost in the translation.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou hast brought me very low_ THOU HAST STRUCK ME DOWN UTTERLY: the same verb as in Judges 5:27 (_he bowed_). _thou art one of them that trouble me_ The first pron. is emphatic; -thou, my beloved, dost appear in the character of my worst enemy." For the Hebr. idiom (_beth essentiae_) see Psalms 54... [ Continue Reading ]
The daughter has her share of the hero's blood, and a larger share of the heroic temper: -My God, my land, my father"! Tennyson, -A Dream of Fair Women.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and go down upon the mountains_ A slight emendation (_weradhti_for _weyaradhti_) improves the sense: _and roam_or _wander restlessly_; cf. Jeremiah 2:31 (-we roam at large"). _bewail my virginity_ To be neither wife nor mother was considered a punishment and a reproach: cf. Genesis 16:1-5; Genesis... [ Continue Reading ]
_who did with her according to his vow_ The language is marked by a fine reserve, but the plain sense of it is that Jephthah offered the tragic sacrifice. Early Jewish interpretation took it to mean this; Talm. _Ta-anith_4 a (where the sacrifice is compared with that of Isaac and of Mesha's son); Mi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it was And it_ BECAME, altering the verb from fern, to masc. The verse is wrongly divided. For _went_render USED TO GO (frequentative). _to celebrate_ So translated to agree with Judges 5:11 (_rehearse_), the only other place where the word occurs: the Versions give _to lament_. In both places... [ Continue Reading ]