Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Judges Capitolo 11

Jephthah departed from his brothers into the land of Tob, i.e., according to 2 Samuel 10:6, 2 Samuel 10:8, a district in the north-east of Perea, on the border of Syria, or between Syria and Ammonitis, called Τώβιον in 1 Macc. 5:13, or more correctly Τουβίν , according to 2 Macc. 12:17, where loose men gathered round him (cf. Judges 9:4), and “went out with him,” viz., upon warlike and predatory expeditions like the Bedouins.

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Jephthah expressed to the elders his astonishment that they had formerly hated and expelled him, and now came to him in their distress, sc., to make him their leader in time of war. Thus he lays his expulsion upon the shoulders of the elders of Gilead, although it was only by his brethren that he had been driven away from his father's house, inasmuch as they had either approved of it, or at all events had not interfered as magistrates to prevent it. We cannot indeed infer from this reproach, that the expulsion and disinheriting of Jephthah was a legal wrong; but so much at all events is implied, namely, that Jephthah looked upon the thing as a wrong that had been done to him, and found the reason in the hatred of his brethren. The Mosaic law contained no regulation upon this matter, since the rule laid down in Deuteronomy 21:15-17 simply applied to the sons of different wives, and not to a son by a harlot.

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The elders replied, “ Therefore ( לכן , because we have formerly done thee wrong) we have now come to thee again to make thee our head, if thou comest with us and fightest against the Ammonites. ” The clauses והלכתּ , ונלהמתּ , and והיית , which are formally co-ordinate, are logically to be subordinated to one another, the first two expressing the condition, the third the consequence, in this sense, “ If thou go with us and fight, ... thou shalt be head to us, namely, to all the inhabitants of Gilead, ” i.e., to the two tribes and a half on the east of the Jordan.

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Jephthah assented to this: “ If ye will take me back to make war upon the Ammonites, and Jehovah shall give them up to me ( lit. 'before me,' as in Joshua 10:12; Deuteronomy 2:31, etc.), I will be your head.” “ I ” is emphatic as distinguished from he; and there is no necessity to regard the sentence as a question, with which the expression in Judges 11:10, “according to thy words,” which presuppose an affirmative statement on the part of Jephthah, and not a question, would be altogether irreconcilable.

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The elders promised this on oath. “ Jehovah be hearing between us, ” i.e., be hearer and judge of the things concerning which we are negotiating; “ truly according to thy word so will we do ” ( לא אם , a particle used in connection with an oath).

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Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, “ and the people (i.e., the inhabitants of Gilead) made him head and captain, and Jephthah spoke all his words before Jehovah at Mizpeh: ” i.e., he repeated in a solemn assembly of the people, before God at Mizpeh, the conditions and obligations under which he would accept the honour conferred upon him. “ Before Jehovah ” does not necessarily presuppose the presence of the ark at Mizpeh; nor can we possibly assume this, since the war was resolved upon primarily by the eastern tribes alone, and they had no ark at all. It merely affirms that Jephthah performed this act, looking up to God, the omnipresent head of Israel. Still less do the words warrant the assumption that there was an altar in Mizpeh, and that sacrifices were offered to confirm the treaty, of which there is not the slightest indication in the text. “'Before Jehovah' implies nothing more than that Jephthah confirmed all his words by an oath” ( Hengstenberg, Diss. ii. pp. 35, 36).

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The father granted this request.

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