Judges 11 - Introduction

Judges 11:1 to Judges 12:7. Jephthah's victory over the Ammonites, his vow, and punishment of the men of Ephraim

The Ammonite invasion made it necessary for the Israelites on the east of Jordan to find a leader: there was nothing for it but to choose Jephthah, the warlike captain of a band of freebooters. Jephthah made his terms, and while at Mizpah in Gilead vowed before Jehovah that, if victorious, he would sacrifice the first person who met him on his return home. The fulfilment of the vow is told with equal skill and reserve; henceforth it became an annual custom for Israelite women to spend four days in mourning for Jephthah's daughter. A dispute with the arrogant men of Ephraim is followed by ruthless vengeance. The story closes with the formula used for the Minor Judges.

As it stands the narrative is a composite structure. The account of Jephthah's origin (Judges 11:1-2) contains features which are partly late and partly based upon Judges 11:7; Judges 11:4 a practically say the same thing; Judges 11:11 b can hardly be the proper sequel of Judges 11:11 a, and the whole verse is inconsistent with Judges 11:29; the negotiations with Ammon (Judges 11:12-28) reproduce the negotiations with Moabin JE's narrative Numbers 20:21. The present form of the story has been explained as due to the combination of two documents, J and E, such as exists in the account of Gideon, or to the confusion of two traditions, one relating a campaign against the Ammonites, the other a campaign against the Moabites. But the distinction between two documents, or two different traditions, cannot be worked out with much certainty; and the simplest explanation seems to be that which Moore supports, viz. that the narrative as a whole has been interpolated (Judges 11:12-28), and in places adapted by editorial hands (Judges 11:1 b, Judges 11:2; Judges 11:5 a, Judges 11:29; Judges 12:7).