At evening on the hilltop of Mizpah in Gilead, the wooden door of a stone house stands open onto a small courtyard, a lamp’s warm glow inside, a terebinth beside it and the hills fading blue beyond.

The Book of

Judges 11

An outcast came home to save Israel. Then he made a promise God never asked for.

40 verses≈ 8 min2 peopleBSB

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a deliverer
6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong God
11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverersChapter 11
17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit

Jephthah Delivers Israel

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

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And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”

So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.

Some time later, when the Ammonites fought against Israel and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

The elders of Gilead

“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”

Jephthah

Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”

The elders of Gilead

They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.”

Jephthah

But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”

The elders of Gilead

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”

So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.

Reflect

The rejected one

Gilead’s sons told Jephthah, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house.” Then trouble came, and the same people went to Tob to bring him back. God has often chosen the overlooked and the pushed-aside to do His work. Where have you been written off? Or whom have you written off? Write it down, and ask God what He might do there.

Jephthah

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?”

The king of Ammon

The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”

Jephthah

Early morning on the high tableland east of Gilead: two messengers in traveling cloaks ride donkeys along a stony track toward a low town on a far hill, long shadows behind them.

Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you now possess it? Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us. Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?

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Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon, Aroer, and their villages, as well as all the cities along the banks of the Arnon. Why did you not take them back during that time?

Judges 11:27

But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.

Question

Quick question

Jephthah sent the king of the Ammonites a long message, retelling how Israel came to hold the land.

Whom did Jephthah ask to decide between Israel and Ammon?

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Jephthah in Gilead

The Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh to Mizpah of Gilead, then against the Ammonites, whose city was Rabbah. He struck “twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim.” This Aroer is probably the one near Rabbah, not Aroer on the Arnon that Jephthah named to the king. Tob, where he had lived as an outcast, lay east of Gilead. The sites of Mizpah, Aroer, Minnith and Abel-keramim are uncertain.

Jephthah’s Tragic Vow

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.

Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out the door of my house to greet me on my triumphant return from the Ammonites will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hand. With a great blow he devastated twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

Evening at the courtyard gate of a stone house in Mizpah: a laughing girl in a bright festive dress and head covering dances out through the gate beating a round frame drum, two friends clapping behind her.

And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.

Jephthah

As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.”

Jephthah’s daughter

“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me as you have said, for the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.” She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”

“Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity upon the mountains.

After two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she had never had relations with a man.

First light on a hill path above a village of Israel: a line of young women in shawls walk out together toward the hills, seen from behind, small and far.

So it has become a custom in Israel

that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

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Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Words before the LORD

Jephthah said, “I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.” His promise cost what God had never asked for. Grieve with God over what sin and rash words cost. Thank Him that you never have to buy His favor with what you love, because He gave His own Son for you. Lord, guard my mouth, make me careful with my promises, and keep me trusting You rather than bargaining with You. Amen.

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Judges 11

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A verse to carry with you

May the LORD, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.

Judges 11:27

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