Outline of Chapter 11:

       Vv.  1–3      Jephthah, a Gileadite, born of a prostitute, is run out of town by his half brothers

       Vv.  4–11    The elders of Gilead, suffering under Ammonite oppression, go to Jephthah for help

       Vv. 12–28    Jephthah corresponds with the king of Ammon

       Vv. 15–28    Jephthah Explains the History of the Disputed Land to the King of Ammon

       Vv. 29–31    Jephthah’s vow

       Vv. 32–33    Israel defeats Ammon

       Vv. 34–40    The fulfillment of Jephthah’s vow

Special Charts and Features:

                            Jephthah’s Recollection of History

                            The Wâw Conjunction

I ntroduction: Judges 11 is an unusual chapter in God’s Word. It begins with Jephthah’s mother, who is a prostitute, and ends with his daughter who will never marry and never have sex. In between, we have the enigmatic Jephthah. Jephthah’s father apparently had an affair or slept with a prostitute, and that prostitute bore him a son. Jephthah’s father did marry and had several sons, all of whom turned on Jephthah. They did not want him to be a part of their family—and particularly, they did not want to share their inheritance with him and his mother, so they drove them out of town. Jephthah moved to a place called Tob, about which we know nothing. It appears as though Jephthah became quite successful, although he apparently hung out with a worthless bunch of devos. However, since he developed a strong reputation as a leader and a military man, the elders of Gilead approached him, asking if he would lead Israel against the sons of Ammon, who had oppressed Israel for almost two decades. There is quite an interesting exchange at this point—what Jephthah requires is to rule over that portion of Israel at the end of the war, and he is granted that.

Interestingly enough, the longest portion of this chapter is a letter from Jephthah to the king of Ammon, trying to settle things diplomatically. Jephthah reveals in this letter that he has a strong background in God’s Word—he knew exactly what had transpired between Israel and Ammon over the past several centuries and that Ammon had no legitimate claim on the land of Gilead that they occupied.

When it becomes obvious that the king of Ammon is not about to back down, Jephthah prepares to war against him, first making a vow to God to dedicate whatever comes out to meet him first when he returns home. The actual war is given but two verses in a chapter of 40 verses. When Jephthah returns home, the one who meets him is his daughter, and she is thus, resignedly, dedicated to God, meaning that she will not marry or know a man. The chapter ends with the daughters of Israel mourning her virginity as a yearly custom. Believe it or not, there is quite a theological argument as to whether Jephthah offered up his daughter as a human sacrifice or whether she simply remained a virgin for the remainder of her life. Most of the extent theological writings for the first thousand years since the first advent of our Lord favor that this was a human sacrifice; and even the great Albert Barnes, from whom I have learned much, takes this position. However, the idea that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter as if she were some animal is absolute foolishness. This will be covered in great detail at the end of this chapter. Furthermore, I have quoted extensively from Keil and Delitzsch, who offer outstanding and persuasive arguments. You might think that I employed overkill in this area, but you will have no doubts about this issue by v. 40.

My first thought when I began this chapter was why is there is separate chapter 10? Why aren’t these two chapters melded together? Barnes suggests that we are dealing with different authors, as though this chapter was inserted into the book of Judges. The history and background of Jephthah actually pre-date Judges 10:17–18 and vv. 3–4 of this chapter seem to be independent of the previous chapter. On the other hand, it is often the Hebrew literary style to give one or two verses of summary and then to expand upon that. A reasonable suggestion is that the person who wrote Judges 10 was a later editor who was tying Judges 9 and 11 together. However, there is not a smooth transition between Judges 10 and 12, indicating that chapter 11 was not simply inserted.

Jephthah, a Gileadite, Born of a Prostitute, Is Run out of Town by His Half Brothers

Jephthah is actually the Hebrew word yiph^etâch (חָ פ ̣י) [pronounced yif-TAWHKH], which means he [God] opens. Strong’s #3316 BDB #836.

Jephthah is described as the masculine construct of gibbôwr (ר  ̣) [pronounced gib-BOAR], which means strong man, mighty man, soldier, warrior, combatant, war veteran. Strong’s #1368 BDB #150. This is further modified by the masculine singular noun chayil (ל  ̣י ַח) [pronounced CHAH-yil ] and it means efficiency, army, strength, valour, power, might. Strong’s #2428 BDB #298. Only four of the judges are mentioned in Heb. 11 (the hall of faith chapter of the Bible); these include Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah (Samuel, who was also a judge, is also mentioned). The author of Hebrews only gave a short summary of various people and acts of faith in the history of Israel, and only mentions these five plus David and the prophets, in v. 32, where he says and I could go on and on with illustrations. The author of Hebrews was not intending to delineate the spiritual giants of the Old Testament, but rather to show how much faith played a part in the lives of the acknowledged spiritual of Israel.

Jephthah also finds himself mentioned in another mini-hall of fame, in I Sam. 12:11: “Then Jehovah sent Jerubbaal and Bedan [or, Barak] and Jephthah and Samuel, and He delivered your from the hands of your enemies all around, so that you lived in security.”

What Jephthah is the son of is the Qal active participle of zânâh (ה ָנ ָז) [pronounced zaw-NAW], which means to commit adultery, to fornicate, to [sexually pursue]. As a participle, this describes a person often by their occupation and what they do at their occupation. Jephthah’s mother was a fornicator. This was her modus operandi at work. She fornicated for a living. We might go with the more genteel prostitute as a translation. Strong's #2181 BDB #275. Jephthah’s father was well-known and respected and he did a very male-thing and went to a prostitute and this prostitute had his son. Obviously, he is not going to acknowledge such a thing nor will he support such a birth, so the prostitute and her son, Jephthah, are outcasts in Israel’s society. Obviously, this is a double standard and obviously, Gilead should have taken responsibility for his actions and obviously, his son should not have had to suffer for what he did. Three thousand years have gone by since then and it would be acceptable for a man to have a liaison in this society with a prostitute, for her to have his child, and for him to abandon them both. Some would raise a fuss, but others would reason that she is simply a prostitute and that, by her very profession, was responsible for any unexpected arrivals.

By Deut. 23:2, Jephthah would not have been allowed in the assembly of Jehovah. Now, a young person could have used this along with the ostracism of his town to turn away from God. This was not Jephthah. Jephthah turned toward God, as will become apparent by his knowledge of Scripture.

The verb which goes with Gilead is the Hiphil imperfect of yâlad (ד ַלָי) [pronounced yaw-LAHD], which means to bear, to be born, to bear, to bring forth, to beget. With a male, this could be better rendered sired, fathered. Strong’s #3205 BDB #408. The name of Jephthah’s father is significant. Although it is possible his name was actually Gilead, it was more likely that he was simply a Gileadite, a man of Gilead, and he was given that name purposely so that he would not be remembered by his actual name. He is quite obviously not the Gilead from Num. 26:29, but a descendant of his.

Jephthah will prove that it is not where you came from that is significant, but who you are. According to McGee, William the Conqueror signed his name William the Bastard, because that is what he was. A point of irony is that Jephthah was raised primarily by a prostitute, rather than by his own father and he apparently turned out a lot better than his half-brothers, as we will see. We are not blank slates completely controlled by the environment in which we find ourselves. Jephthah rose above his beginnings and will become the man of the hour for Israel.

The wife is Gilead is described by the feminine construct of îshshâh (ה ָֹ ̣א) [pronounced eesh-SHAWH], which means woman, wife. Strong's #802 BDB #61. Since this is in the construct and followed by Gilead, it would be reasonable to render this wife. What these sons did is quite interesting—it is the Qal imperfect of The Qal perfect of gâdal (ל ַד ָ) [pronounced gaw-DAWHL], which means to grow strong, to become great, to grow up, to become mighty. Strong’s #1431 BDB #152. It is the verbal cognate of mighty in the previous verse.

What they did after becoming mighty was the Piel imperfect of gârash (ש ַר ָ) [pronounced gaw-RASH] and it means to cast out, to throw out, to drive out. Strong's #1644 BDB #176. When a man becomes strong, that is when you develop some insight into their true character. Some men, once they become strong, bully others, and that is what these young men did. What method they used was not given; however, they put the pressure either on Jephthah or on his mother and got them to move out of town. And they were caused to move out as though they had done something wrong. Now you may point to the fact that Abraham sent his children by Keturah away, so as not to interfere with the inheritance of his child Isaac (Gen. 25:1–6); however, this is not the same as being sent away by one’s half-brothers who do so out of simple greed. Furthermore, Abraham did this knowing that his one son, Isaac, would be the heir to all that God had for him.

As far as the Law is concerned, this was a rather tough call. If a man married two women and loved one more than the other, he could not cut his first children from the unloved wife out of their inheritance (Deut. 21:15–17). However, we do not deal with the liaison of a man and a prostitute in the Law. In any case, his children did not act out of some act related to doctrine—their concern was greed. One less person meant there was more for them in the pot to be split up. You must realize that a lot of what you think is human viewpoint. What they did to Jephthah did not give them one iota more wealth—in fact, they probably lost far more than they expected to gain when the Ammonites took over Israel.

What was apparently the case is that Gilead had a liaison with a prostitute during his marriage or prior to his marriage (and she may have even become a prostitute after this affair), and they apparently all lived in the same city (possibly even the same house, although I doubt that). Furthermore, it was known, possibly even well-known, who this boy belonged to. There may have even been some sort of a relationship after the child. However, Gilead either married or was married; she bore him sons, and they drove Jephthah and his mother out of town, promising that he would not get a portion of their father’s inheritance. What was significant here was the land. The land was passed on from generation to generation. Also, of course, the little wealth which the family had accumulated was also passed along.

Now you will notice that I have hedged a great deal as to the relationship between Gilead and Jephthah’s mother as well as in regard to some of the events which took place. Here is the key: the sons of Gilead tell Jephthah that he will not inherit in his father’s house as opposed to from his father’s house. The implication is that Gilead had maintained some sort of relationship here with the son, even to the point of him coming into his house and there may have been some financial support as well, implying that he could inherit some of their inheritance.

I hope that you recall from the previous chapter that there are some choices that we make which affect the rest of our lives. Case in point: Jephthah’s mother. Whether a prostitute or not at the time of her liaison with Gilead, she became one. The upshot of all of this is that she remained unmarried at least until Jephthah grew up and they were forced out of town. This means she chose to have sex out of wedlock and she obviously did not marry her right man. She was a marked woman after that. She had her son and he had no future to speak of. Now, she and he might have both been believers (in fact, this is probably the case), and it is possible that they remained in fellowship for most of their lives after his birth (in fact, this is probably the case). I say that this was probably the case because Jephthah grew up to be a great man—much greater than his brothers; in fact, he was the man of the hour for Israel. His mother was likely a believer who steered him in the right direction. However, bear in mind that she never married her right man. She may have had happiness and blessing, but she never had her right man. Keep this in mind if you are a young woman with hormones exploding like a special effects movie—one of your greatest desires in life is a young man. By having sex outside of marriage, you might cut off from yourself that great desire of yours.

The beginning of this verse also indicates that there was a relationship maintained at first between Jephthah and his father, as these young men who force him out of his home town are called his brothers.

We do not know where Tob is, although there are suggestions (when is there not?). It is likely in Bashan (later known as Hauran), which is either southern Manasseh or northern Gad. Obviously this is all found within the Gilead. The land itself is quite fertile, as the result of volcanic activity. The grain grown for Damascus and Palestine came from this area, which is also almost treeless. Rotherham also places it northeast of Palestine, in what is today, Syria. Tob, according to Rotherham, means fruitful district. A comparison of II Sam. 10:6 and 8 would also place Tob in Syria.

In the third phrase, we have the 3^rd person masculine plural, Hithpael imperfect of lâqaţ (ט ַק ָל) [pronounced law-KAHT], which means to gather, to gather up, to pick up. Strong’s #3950 BDB #544. The Hithpael is the reflexive of the Piel, so it means that these men gathered themselves to Jephthah. The men who went out with Jephthah are called men of the masculine plural adjective rêq (ק ֵר) [pronounced rake] means empty, vain, worthless. Strong’s #7386 BDB #938. Jephthah himself was a man who had a great deal of potential. However, he surrounded himself with worthless and vain men. What they all did together was the Qal imperfect of yâtsâ (א ָצ ָי) [pronounced yaw-TZAWH], which means to go out, to come out, to come forth. Strong's #3318 BDB #422. In reading the rest of the narrative you may ask yourself why on earth was this mentioned? Jephthah will gain the reputation of being a great military leader. We are given few details, other than (1) worthless men gathered themselves to him; and, (2) when Gilead was overrun by Ammonites and had to find a man to deliver them, Jephthah’s name came to the forefront. We can only fill in the gap here and figure that Jephthah took these worthless men and whipped them into line, giving them discipline and direction, displaying his own leadership skills. One of the qualities of a leader is that he is able to bring men up, as opposed to allowing them to pull him down.

The Elders of Gilead, Suffering under Ammonite Oppression, Go to Jephthah for Help

The beginning of this verse is literally and so he was from and we have the masculine plural noun yôwd (די) [pronounced yohd], which means days. Altogether, these words mean and it was, after a time; and it came to pass after awhile. Days is preceded by the mîn preposition, which generally means from, out from; however, with a time period, it can mean after. This phrase is given a variety of translations: And it cometh to pass, after a time (Young); And it came about after awhile (NASB); And so it came to pass, after a time (Rotherham); and Sometime later (NIV). Mîn = Strong’s #4480 BDB #577. Yâmîym = Strong’s #3117 BDB #398. This verse simply sets up the historical context.

This is a meanwhile, back at the ranch verse. In Judges 10, we saw that Israel was under great pressure placed upon them by the sons of Ammon and that God did not seem to come to their assistance this time. Then, with chapter 11, we began to look at Jephthah and his background.

Grammatically speaking, this, and the beginning of the next verse, are rather confusing. The two verses are very similar—so similar in fact that the repetition is not found in the Greek (and the NIV follows suit). However, this does not appear to be a case where the scribe copied one verse a second time. Perhaps Young’s rendering will help us out here: And it cometh to pass, after a time, that the Bene-Ammon fight with Israel, and it cometh to pass, when the Bene-Ammon have fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead go to take Jephthah from the land of Tob... In the first case, we have the verb to fight, to war in the Qal imperfect. In other words, after the time when Jephthah was being cast out of his land of Gilead and having these worthless men gathered to him, the sons of Ammon began to go to war against Israel. The imperfect tense indicates an incomplete action. In v. 5, the verb is in the perfect, meaning that the action was completed. In other words, once the war of the Ammonites against Israel had come to a halt, the Ammonites being the victors, then Gilead sent men out to find Jephthah. In other words, what is being done with these verses is the setting up of a time line or a sequencing of events. This is rarely done in the Hebrew. In fact, one of the problems with interpreting Old Testament Scripture is that our Greek minds tend to think in such a linear fashion, whereas the Hebrew mind thought more in terms of subject matter and topic. Therefore, the arrangement of their literature is not done as we would.

Still, there seems to be a break in the rhythm, and one could guess that perhaps v. 4 was thrown in by the editor in an attempt to smooth out the events of the previous chapter and this chapter.

We already know about the attack of Ammon upon Israel—this was all given in the previous chapter. Here we are told the history of Jephthah and what his life was like prior to this attack. Sometimes, in order for a man’s greatness to come out, he must be put to the test.

Early on in this verse, kaph and the relative pronoun together mean when. The verb for make war in this verse in is the Niphal perfect, meaning the attack by Ammon was looked upon as a completed, accomplished fact. Jap had lived outside of the area for this period of time; Ammon had moved in and the fighting, at least for awhile, was over and done with. Israel had succumbed to Ammonite rule.

Jephthah was obviously a grown young man when he was forced out of Gilead and he showed obvious leadership potential. In fact, he had made such an impression on his hometown that they thought he would be the correct man to lead Israel. This would be because of the impression that he left and because he was a leader of men at this time. The men that Jephthah whipped into shape were worthless men, which is much more difficult than taking strong, vigorous men with a great deal of self-motivation and whipping them into shape. The men of Gilead knew that Jephthah was the man for the job.

What Jephthah would be to Israel is the lâmed prefixed preposition (to, for) and the masculine singular noun qâtsîyn (ןי.צָק) [pronounced kaw-TSEEN], which means captain, ruler, prince. It is similar to the words meaning end, extremity and it might mean that the buck stops here. This word has only been used one time previously and that in Joshua 10:24 of his high ranking generals. Therefore, this is not necessarily, at least at this time, a word for a man with complete and total authority. In using this word, the men of Gilead are making it clear to Jephthah that they would like him to lead the troops in battle—period. There is nothing else implied after that. Strong’s #7101 BDB #892.

The first adverb in this verse is maddu׳a ( ַע ֻ ַמ) [pronounced mah-DOO-ahģ] means why, wherefore, on what account. Strong’s #4069 BDB #396. This continues the question which Jephthah began.

At the end of this verse we have the kaph preposition and the relative pronoun again (when), and the relative pronoun often insinuates the verb to be. We then have the lâmed prefixed preposition and the masculine singular noun tsar (ר ַצ) [pronounced tsahr], which means an adversary, an enemy, distress, affliction, a stone. These correspond to the slightly different meanings of its verb cognate. Strong’s #6862 BDB #865.

In comparing this verse to vv. 2–3, among the elders of Gilead are several of Jephthah’s brothers. It is obvious that Jephthah has been thinking about this for a long time and was himself quite distressed over it. After all, the nature of his birth was not of his choosing. With a lesser man, their act of hatred could have doomed Israel—i.e., Jephthah could have chosen not to return to Gilead to help them.

Their quote begins with the prefixed lâmed preposition and the adverb kên (ן ֵ) [pronounced kane]; together, they mean according to such conditions, that being so, therefore. L^e = Strong’s #none BDB #510 Kên = Strong’s #3651 BDB #485. This is followed by ׳attâh (ה ָ ַע) [pronounced ģaht-TAWH], which is an adverb of time meaning now. Sometimes, the idea of time is lost when it is used as a word of incitement. Strong’s #6258 BDB #773. I am thinking that these three particles strung together had a more cohesive meaning, but I don’t know what that is. Together, in this passage, they have been rendered that is why now (Owen), therefore...now (Rotherham and Young), and for this reason (the NASB). The impression that I am getting is that they are presenting this as an opportunity to right all the wrongs which have since occurred.

Back in v. 6, they offered Jephthah a position of military leadership in Gilead—in fact, they pressed him to take the position, seeing him as their only hope against the Ammonites. Now, in this verse, they up the stakes somewhat, although it is not quite as clear in the English. We’ll cover this in more detail in the next verse.

We have a verb used in this and the previous verse. In v. 8 we have the Qal perfect of shûw^bv (בש) [pronounced shoo^bv]; which means to return, to turn, to reminisce, to restore something, to bring back something. In this verse, it is in the Hiphil stem, so it means to be caused to return, to bring, to be caused to turn back mentally, reminisce, to return something, to restore, to bring back, to regain, to recover, to make restitution, reconsider, think again, or to be caused to return. Strong's #7725 BDB #996.

The continuation of that if adds the Qal perfect of nâthan (ן ַת ָנ) [pronounced naw-THAHN], which means give, grant, place, put, set. Strong's #5414 BDB #678. This is followed by the direct object with the 3^rd person masculine plural (referring to the sons of Ammon), the lâmed preposition and the masculine plural noun lâmed prefixed preposition plus the masculine noun pânîym (םי ̣נ ָ) [pronounced paw-NEEM], which together mean in the sight of, in the presence of, in your face, before the face of or, more literally, to or for the faces. Pânîym = Strong’s #6440 BDB #815. Jephthah is simply negotiating his place in Israel if he consents to go with them and fight against Ammon.

What Jephthah is doing is repeating back what he understands the terms of the agreement are as proffered to him. You will note that they originally offered Jephthah one thing and then they upped the ante, so to speak, and, at that point, caught his interest. This is not at all clear from the English but it is ever so clear in the Hebrew. What they offer Jephthah in v. 6 is for Jephthah to simply be a military leader over them in this war against Ammon. There is nothing implied about his position in Israel after that. In v. 7, Jephthah complains about how he was previously treated and why on earth would they come to him for this if they were the very ones who expelled him from the Gilead in the first place. In v. 8, they up the stakes, although, again, this is not at all clear in the English. In v. 6, he was offered the position of qâtsîyn (ןי.צָק) [pronounced kaw-TSEEN], which means captain, ruler, prince. Strong’s #7101 BDB #892. In this case, it was a temporary military appointment. Furthermore, the implication is that they might have some authority over him. Therefore, he hems and haws so that they come back in v. 8 and ask him if he would like to have the position of rôsh (ש אֹר) [pronounced roshe], which means head, top, chief, front, choicest. Strong's #7218 BDB #910. This is a position of power which means that he would call the shots and that he would be ruler over that portion of Israel after the war was over.

You will note how these negotiations went. Jephthah did not come right out and tell them what he wanted. He didn’t say directly that they would have to up the ante a little. The negotiating process there was a great deal more subtle. The men from Gilead had the need and they approached with the options that Jephthah could choose from. When he didn’t take the first offer, then they upped it. A car salesman might do the same thing. If he senses a person is ready to buy a car, but that the price is the problem, then he drops the price even if they had not asked him to do so. Obviously, he would only do so as the clincher and that is how these elders from Gilead operated. Jephthah was not going to take a temporary military appointment so they had to offer him more.

This has a few difficulties so let’s see what others have done:

The Emphasized Bible      And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah— Yahweh himself will be hearkening between us, if according to thy word so we do not.

NASB                                And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us; surely we will do as you have said.”

Young's Lit. Translation     And the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, ‘Jehovah is hearkening between us—if according to thy word we do not so.’

The easy part is the two verbs with Y^ehowah: We have the Qal imperfect of hâyâh (ה ָי ָה) [pronounced haw-YAW], which means to be. Strong's #1961 BDB #224. This is quickly followed by the Qal active participle of shâma׳ (ע ַמ ָש) [pronounced shaw-MAH], which means to listen, listen intently, to listen and obey, to listen and give heed to, to hearken to, to be attentive to, listen and take heed to, listen and take note of, listen and be cognizant of. In the Qal active participle, this would be listening, hearkening, hearing, a hearer, a listener, and a less than literal rendering might be a witness. Strong's #8085 BDB #1033.

The biggest problem is the negative. The literal translation is as you see in my translation: if not as your word, so we will do. However, the meaning is closer to what we find with Rotherham or with Young: Jehovah is a witness if we don’t do as you have spoken. Although the negative does not properly go with the verb, this is how we would understand it in the English. Essentially, what is being done here is that they are formally ratifying the terms of their agreement as stated by Jephthah. The statement that Jehovah will be a witness between us indicates that they have come to an agreement and that God is a witness to the terms of the agreement. We find similar statements throughout Scripture (Gen. 31:49–50 Jer. 29:23 42:5). Today, we sign contracts before witnesses and/or public notaries.

We have our two words for leader in this verse; the first word, head, indicates a higher position. The second word, leader, indicates simply a military leadership position.

The last line of this verse might seem rather enigmatic to some, but the REB’s rendering makes it clear what is means: And at Mizpah, in the present of the Lord, Jephthah repeated the terms he had laid down. The NJB is also helpful here: So Jephthah set off with the elders of Gilead The people put him at their head as chief and commander; and Jephthah repeated all his conditions at Mizpah in Yahweh’s presence. Jephthah left with the elders of Gilead and went to their center of operations at Mizpah. There, the terms and conditions of his return to Gilead were spoken before God.

The implication is that this was a formal, public ceremony, a coronation, if you will. The elders acted as representatives of the people and their actions were essentially recognized and ratified by the people at these ceremonies. We will find similar ceremonies to recognize the authority of King Saul (I Sam. 11:15), Rehoboam (I Kings 12:1), and Jeroboam (I King 12:20).

Jephthah Corresponds with the King of Ammon

Jephthah takes an interesting approach. Recall that the sons of Ammon—well, you know what? you might not recall much about the sons of Ammon, which means that this would be a good place to examine them. You see, there was a reason that Jephthah first appealed to reasonableness of the king of the sons of Ammon and there is a good reason for that. Jephthah simply did not muster his troops and attack nor was Jephthah a coward looking for the easy way out. In fact, what is to follow will be a lengthy bit of correspondence between the two leaders; correspondence which will reveal to us that Jephthah does know his Scripture. To fully appreciate what Jephthah was doing, we need to first examine the Doctrine of the Sons of Ammon.

It is also important to note that Jephthah was simply following the advice of Moses. “When you approach a city to fight against it, you will offer them terms of peace...if they do not make peace with you, but engage in war, then you will besiege it.” (Deut. 20:10, 12). Although Moses was not speaking directly to the situation at hand, this was still a reasonable application of what Moses had said. As we have seen in the Doctrine of the Sons of Ammon, God, at first, was quite protective of Ammon, giving them their own land and preserving them in this land, and preventing Israel from attacking them.

The first verb with Israel is the Qal perfect of lâqach (ח ַק ָל) [pronounced law-KAHKH] which means to take, to take from, to take in marriage, to seize. Strong’s #3947 BDB #542. is the Qal infinitive construct of ׳âlâh (ה ָל ָע) [pronounced ģaw-LAWH], which means to go up, to ascend, to rise. Here, in the Qal infinitive construct (in Job 5:26), it would mean a rising of, an ascending of, a climbing of. Strong's #5927 BDB #748.

What the king of Ammon requires of Jephthah is the Hiphil imperative of shûw^bv (בש) [pronounced shoo^bv]; which means to return, to turn, to reminisce, to restore something. In the Hiphil stem, it means to be caused to return, to bring, to be caused to turn back mentally, reminisce, to return something, to restore, to bring back, to regain, to recover, to make restitution, reconsider, think again, or to be caused to return. Strong's #7725 BDB #996. The Hebrew word indicating the direct object relation follows, and the suffix of that word is the feminine plural, apparently referring to land in the plural? The final word in this verse is the masculine singular noun shâlôwm (םל ָש) [pronounced shaw-LOHM], which means completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, safe, secure, tranquil, undisturbed, unagitated. This is not the only noun cognate for the verb, by the way. Strong’s #7965 BDB #1022.

The land which we are speaking about is east of the Jrdan and the Dead Sea. About midway down the Dead Sea is the Arnon River, coming in at a right angle; and about a third of the way up the Jordan is the Jabbok, also coming in at a right angle. This would be all of the land of Reuben and most of the land of Gad (depending upon how Gad and Manasseh are divided). Now, as we discussed in the Doctrine of the Sons of Ammon, Israel was told specifically by God not to act aggressively toward Moab or Ammon and Moses obeyed these instructions from God (Deut. 2:9, 19, 37). However, when he came to the land of the Amorites, which stood between him and the crossing over of the Jordan, they were not about to let Israel pass on by without a fight (Num. 21:21–25 Deut. 2:26–31). Moses defeated Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and Israel took his land (Deut. 2:32–36). Apparently, the Amorites had taken some of this land from Moab (Num. 21:26) and we can deduce from Joshua 13:21–25 that they took some of the land from Ammon. Now, given the fact that neither Ammon nor Moab was at all helpful to Israel in their trek northward (Deut. 23:3), there is no moral obligation whatsoever on the part of Israel to return this land that they took from the Amorites back to Moab or to Ammon.

The first verb is the Hiphil imperfect of yâçaph (ף ַס ָי) [pronounced yaw-SAHPH], which means to add, to augment, to continue to do a thing. The Hiphil is the causative stem, so Jephthah caused to be added, or caused to augment this message. Strong's #3254 BDB #414. The adverb which is ׳ôwd (דע) [pronounced ģohd] (it is also written דֹע), which means still, yet, again, besides, in addition to, even yet. Strong’s #5750 BDB #728.

You will notice that Jephthah is not hotheaded nor does he just jump into doing something. If there is a problem which he can resolve peacefully, then that is what he would prefer to do. We have no particular direction from God; however, we can assume, since there was no direct contact, that whatever Scripture had already been written still applied. Jephthah is going to reveal that he is an expert in Scripture—he certainly knows more about the historical events than you or th eking of Moab did—and he will follow the same instructions which God gave to Moses; to wit, he will not harass or act aggressively toward the children of Ammon or Moab.

The NIV Study Bible has an excellent commentary on this second letter: Jephthah responded in accordance with international policies of the time; his letter is a classical example of contemporary international correspondence. It also reflects—and appeals to—the common recognition that the gods of a people established and protected their political boundaries and decided all boundary disputes. Jephthah’s defense of Israel’s claim to the land is threefold: (1) Israel took it from Sihon king of the Amorites, not from the Ammonites (vv. 15–22); (2) the Lord gave the land to Israel (vv. 23–25); (3) Israel had long possessed it (vv. 26–27).

Said is in the 3^rd person masculine singular in the Massoretic text; however, it reads they in some codices. Jephthah places what is crucial to this discussion right up front: Israel did not take any land which belonged to Moab or to Ammon.

Now Jephthah is going to demonstrate something which is quite impressive: he knows God’s Word. It is interesting that Jephthah mentions three places: Egypt, the wilderness up to the sea of reeds, and then Kadesh. He skipped a great deal of Israel’s history. He focuses on the leaving Egypt and he focuses on the leaving of Kadesh (which is in the far southern region of Judah).

To give you a brief background of Israel’s silent years: Israel was in Kadesh-barnea, in the far, far southern portion of Judah. They were far enough south of civilization as to not be a problem. They sent spies from Kadesh to examine the land for conquest upon their arrival at the foot of the promised land. This was about a year out of Egypt (Num. 13–14; see Num. 13:26 specifically). The minority report of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, was that Israel should go into the land and take it. The majority reports was one of fear, apprehension, and a total lack of trust in God. The people themselves listened to the report of fear, and fell into great fear themselves, rebelling against Moses.

Moses manages to persuade God to allow the people to live; however, Israel’s movement into the land was stopped dead in its tracks. God also promised to wipe out that generation. When they realized that they had screwed up and that they were going to die anyway at the hand of God, a large group of Israelites attacked the land, against the direction of Moses. They were beat back to Hormah, which is still far north of Kadesh (about 50 miles north, actually). Although a great deal is said about Israel wandering through the desert for the next 38½ years, it does not appear as though they really wandered much. 38½ years, we find Israel still in Kadesh (Num. 20:1). It is from Kadesh that Israel contacts Edom and apparently Moab (we will discuss that further in a moment).

In the second half of this verse we have the wâw conjunction and the adverb gam (ם ַ) [pronounced gahm], which means also, furthermore, in addition to, moreover. Strong’s #1571 BDB #168. What is implied is most of he former sentence. Jephthah does not repeat himself, but with these two little words, implies that he also sent a similar request to the king of Moab.

The final verb with the king of Moab is the negative and the Qal perfect of â^bvâh (ה ָב&