Judges 11:1-28--Jephthah Delivers Israel

Judges 11:1-28
English Standard Version

Jephthah Delivers Israel
11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. 2 And Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.

4 After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. 5 And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.” 7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” 8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13 And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” 14 Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites 15 and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16 but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

​18 “Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19 Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’ 20 but 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. 21 And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. 22 And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23 So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? 24 Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. 25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? 26 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time? 27 I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The LORD, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” 28 But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

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Unlike Gideon, Jephthah was actually a mighty warrior, however, we'll see that he too had some character flaws.  He was the son of the one named Gilead though his mother was known to be a prostitute, according to the text.  He was taken by his father and raised by him, but when his father bore other children by his wife, those children drove Jephthah out of the home so that he would have no part of his father's inheritance since he was the son of someone other than their mother.  Once he was driven out he lived in the land of Tob (assumed to be in the wilderness east of Gilead) where it seems that he met up with a bunch of other outcasts that the text describes as "worthless" men.  This probably speaks to them being deficient in character and having no relationship with God more than anything else as this is probably Samuel, the one who was Judge, Prophet, and Priest over Israel writing this account of the Judges.

When the Ammonites came to make war against Israel again, the elders of Gilead came to seek out Jephthah in Tob because he was a mighty warrior and they wanted him to lead them into battle.  Jephthah correctly calls out the elders for driving him out and hating him until now and only coming to him because they are currently in distress.  He doesn't trust them to treat him any differently once the threat of the Ammonites is goine.

They promise again to make him their leader, and Jephthah agrees that he will go to battle against the Ammonites and if the LORD gives him victory, then he will lead the people of Gilead.  The elders than vowed before God that the LORD should deal severely with them if they broke their vow with him.  (The Bible warns us about making such vows so that people will believe us.  We should have such integrity that we can let our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no."  Anything more that we need to add to is sinful according to the Sermon on the Mount).  So Jephthah went with them and they made him their leader so that he might lead the people in battle against the Ammonites.

Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to ask why it was that they were coming to make war with him and his people, and the Ammonites answered that they were still upset about the land they had lost during the time of Moses and Joshua when the LORD gave the Israelites much of the land that belonged to the Ammonites.  The Ammonites specifically laid out the boundaries of the land that used to belong to them and they wanted it back, or they were willing to continue to go to war over it--there was going to be "coexistence" between the Israelites and the Ammonites (or any of the others that the LORD told the Israelites to kill and dive out of the Land because they were to know that the Land no longer belonged to them).

Jephthah then gives them a proper history lesson of how the Israelites had first asked for passage through the land of Edom (relatives through Esau, the brother of Jacob.  Jacob was the one who was later named Israel) and they were refused passage on the King's Highway, and then they went to Moab (Moab was also a distant relative of Israel as Moab was descended from Lot, the nephew of Abraham--see Genesis 19).  The sent messages to King Sihon to ask for safe passage and it was King Sihon who gathered his people to fight against Israel, so the LORD gave King Sihon and all the land the that he rules over into the hands of the Israelites--this was the land of the Amorite king, King Sihon, not the land of the Ammonites who are trying to claim now that they owned this land.  Similarly the LORD gave the Israelites victory over King Og another Amorite king, and the land that belonged to these two kings and that land became this land of the Trans-Jordan tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh that we have been calling Gilead.  Jephthah asks correctly what right they Ammonites now have to claim possession of a land that never belonged to them?

Jephthah tells them that they are no better than Balak the king of the Moabites who tried to get Balaam to curse the Israelites while they were encamped on his border.  He sought to destroy them simply because he saw them as a threat and he sought to steal the blessings that the LORD was trying to give to them, so it is too with these Ammonites.  Also, all these things that they claimed were wrongs done to them happened many hundred of years before--things that no one alive that day would be responsible for, so Jephthah asks first why they delayed so long in bringing their case to the Israelites and why they are trying to make war against a generation of people that never wronged them?  All these points are excellent arguments for much of what is going on with Israel and the Palestinians today--they have no legitimate claim and no legitimate reason to make war with Israel for the same reasons that Jephthah lays out in this text.

Even though the facts were laid out well, the king of the Ammonites was not there to listen to facts, logic, or reason.  He was there for blood and was going to make war, for that is what he had promised his people, and he would be embarrassed to back down from a fight like this.  So far Jephthah has been knocking it out of the park--he gave an answer to the elders in the form of "if the LORD wills it to happen" and he knew the Old Testament Scriptures well enough to refute the false claims of the Ammonites.  He sought first to convince them that they had no claim to the land and to get them to retreat to the boundaries of their own land before going to war with them, yet this is where the wisdom of Jephthah will end.  Right after this, he will make a foolish vow that he will not realize exactly how foolish it is until the end of his story.  We'll talk about that foolish vow next time.