SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 12

JEPHTHAH’S VOW

JEPHTHAH’S FOOLISH VOW

From Judges 11

In the land of Gilead lived a mighty warrior named Jephthah. His father Gilead, had many wives and many sons. These sons hated Jephthah, for his mother was a harlot, so they made him get out of their country. ‘You certainly won’t inherit anything from our father,’ they said, ‘for you are the son of an evil woman.’ Jephthah ran away to live in the land of Tob. Before long, other runaways joined him there and they all began to live by robbing others. In the meantime, the Ammonites started war against Israel. Because leaders of Gilead knew what a great warrior Jephthah was, they sent messengers to him asking him to lead their army against the Ammonites. ‘Didn’t you hate me so much that you drove me away from home?’ he said. ‘Why do you come to me when you are in trouble?’ ‘We want you to help us fight the Ammonites,’ they answered. ‘If you do, you may also rule over us.’ ‘How do I know you are telling the truth?’ Jephthah asked. ‘We promise before Adonai that we will make you our ruler,’ the leaders of Gilead answered. Jephthah went back to Gilead with the leaders and was made ruler and military leader at Mizpah. As soon as he became the new ruler, Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. ‘Why are you preparing to fight us?’ Jephthah asked. ‘Because Israel took our land when they came from Egypt,’ the king of the Ammonites answered. ‘I want it back, all of it; from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River.’ Jephthah sent another message to the king of the Ammonites. ‘Israel didn’t take your land,’ he said. ‘When my people came from Egypt, they crossed the wilderness and the Red Sea to Kadesh. They asked permission of the king of Edom to pass through his land, but he wouldn’t let them. They asked the king of Moab, but he wouldn’t let them either. They stayed there at Kadesh-barnea. ‘Then they went through the wilderness, travelling around Edom and Moab along the eastern border. Not once did they go into the land of Moab. ‘Then Israel asked King Sihon of the Amorites if they could pass through his land. Sihon was suspicious of the Israelites, so he gathered his army, camped at Jahaz and attacked them. But Adonai helped our people defeat Sihon, so Israel captured the land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. That land was a gift from Adonai! Why should you claim it now? What your god Chemosh gives you is yours. But what our YHVH gives us is ours. ‘Do you think you’re better than King Balak of Moab, the son of Zippor? Did he ever start a war to get his land back? We’ve been living here in this land for three hundred years, in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon River. Why didn’t you make a claim on the land before this? I haven’t wronged you, but you have sinned against me by starting a war against me. Today Adonai is the Judge who will decide between my people and yours.’ The king of the Ammonites ignored Jephthah’s message. Then the Spirit of Adonai came upon Jephthah, empowering him to lead his army across the territories of Gilead and Manasseh. From Mizpah of Gilead he launched an attack on the Ammonites. Then Jephthah made a foolish vow. ‘If You give me victory over the Ammonites,’ he promised, ‘I will offer as a burnt offering the first person who comes from the doors of my house to meet me.’ Adonai did give him victory over the Ammonites. He destroyed them throughout the twenty cities from Aroer to Minnith and on to Abel-cheramim. The Ammonites were defeated by Israel. When Jephthah came home to Mizpah of Gilead, his only daughter came out to meet him, dancing and playing the timbrels. When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes. ‘How terrible, my daughter!’ he cried. ‘You have sent me down to a great sorrow. I made a promise to Adonai and I cannot break it.’ ‘If you have made a promise to Adonai, you must keep it,’ she said. ‘You must do what you have said, for Adonai has given you a great victory over the Ammonites. But please let me go into the mountains for two months with my friends to cry because I will never marry.’ ‘Go,’ Jephthah told her. The girl and her friends roamed the hills for two months, crying because she would never marry. Then she came back home to Jephthah, who fulfilled his vow to Adonai. Jephthah’s daughter never married. From that time on, the young women of Israel followed the custom of going away from home for four days each year to cry for Jephthah’s daughter.

COMMENTARY

CANAANITE CHARIOTS FOR WAR AND HUNTING

During the conquest of the Promised Land, the Israelites fought against many types of Canaanite weapons. But the deadliest of all Canaanite weapons was the chariot, used both for war and hunting. On level ground, the foot soldier was no match for a trained chariot driver. But in the hills, the chariot lost its usefulness. Chariots were expensive to buy and maintain. Only the wealthy could afford them for hunting. Sometimes they chased wild bulls in chariots, shooting them with bow and arrows. Quivers, fastened to the side of the chariots, held a supply of arrows. For entertainment, Canaanite royalty sometimes hunted lions. This was actually quite a safe sport the way they did it, for someone else caught the lions and released them in the royal hunting park.