Judges 11:1

_NOW JEPHTHAH THE GILEADITE WAS A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR, AND HE WAS THE SON OF AN HARLOT: AND GILEAD BEGAT JEPHTHAH._ Jephthah - `opener.' SON OF AN HARLOT - a concubine, or foreigner; implying an inferior sort of marriage prevalent in Eastern countries. It is conjectured that she was the Aramitess, the concubine of Gilead, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:14. Whatever dishonour might attach to his birth, his own high and energetic character rendered him early a person of note. GILEAD BEGAT JEPHTHAN. His father seems to have belonged to the tribe of Manasseh (1 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Chronicles 7:17)....

1-11 Men ought not to be blamed for their parentage, so long as they by their personal merits roll away any reproach. God had forgiven Israel, therefore Jephthah will forgive. He speaks not with confidence of his success, knowing how justly God might suffer the Ammonites to prevail for the further punishment of Israel. Nor does he speak with any confidence at all in himself. If he succeed, it is the Lord delivers them into his hand; he thereby reminds his countrymen to look up to God as the Giver of victory. The same question as here, in fact, is put to those who desire salvation by Christ. If he save you, will ye be willing that he shall rule you? On no other terms will he save you. If he make you happy, shall he make you holy? If he be your helper, shall he be your Head? Jephthah, to obtain a little worldly honour, was willing to expose his life: shall we be discouraged in our Christi...

CHAPTER XI _The history of Jephthah, and his covenant with the Gileadites_, 1-10. _He is elected by the people_, 11. _Sends an embassy to the king of the Ammonites, to inquire why_ _they invaded Israel; and receives an answer, to which he sends_ _back a spirited reply_, 12-27. _This is disregarded by the Ammonites, and Jephthah prepares for_ _battle_, 28, 29. _His vow_, 30, 31. _He attacks and defeats them_, 32, 33. _On his return to Mizpeh he is met by his daughter, whom,_...

The history of Jephthah appears to be an independent history inserted by the compiler of the Book of Judges. Judges 11:4 introduce the Ammonite war without any apparent reference to Judges 10:17. A genealogy of Manasseh 1 Chronicles 7:14 gives the families which sprang from Gilead, and among them mention is made of an “Aramitess” concubine as the mother of one family. Jephthah, the son of Gilead by a strange woman, fled, after his father’s death, to the land of Tob Judges 11:3, presumably the land of his maternal ancestors (compare...

EXPOSITION JUDGES 11:1 The narrative here goes back probably some years, to explain the antecedents of Jephthah, who was about to play so prominent a part in the ensuing history. Jephthah we learn was a bastard son of Gilead by a foreign harlot, an Aramitess, if there is any connection between this verse and 1 Chronicles 7:14; and when the sons of Gilead's wife were grown up, they expelled Jephthah, and refused to let him have any share in the inheritance of their father, because he was the son of a foreigner; Jephthah therefore fled from Gilead, and took up his residence in the land of Tob, apparently an Aramean settlement (2 Samuel 10:6,...

NOW JEPHTHAH THE GILEADITE WAS A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR,.... Jephthah had his name of Gileadite either from his father, whose name was Gilead, or from the city and country in which he was born, which is most likely, and so was of the same country with the preceding judge; and he was a man of great strength and valour, and which perhaps became known by his successful excursions on parties of the enemies of Israel, the Ammonites, being at the head of a band of men, who lived by the booty they got from them: AND HE WAS THE SON OF AN HARLOT; the Targum says, an innkeeper; and, according to Kimchi, she was a concubine, which some reckoned no better than an harlot, but such are not usually called so; some Jewish writers will have her to be one of another tribe his father ought not to have married; and others, that she was of another nation, a Gentile, so Josephus c: and, according to Patricides...

CHAPTER 11 JEPHTHAH AND THE AMMONITES _ 1. Jephthah's covenant (Judges 11:1)_ 2. The messages to Ammon (Judges 11:12) 3. Jephthah's vow and victory (Judges 11:29) 4. Jephthah keeps his vow (Judges 11:34) Jephthah the judge who delivered Israel from the servitude of Ammon was the offspring of an unholy union “the son of an harlot.” Then he became an outcast and had to flee from his brethren. He dwelt in the land of Tob (goodness) and vain, or worthless, men gathered unto him. Yet he was a mighty man of valor. He was therefore an humble instrument, despised and rejected by his own. But finally thos

JEPHTHAH'S YOUTH. Jephthah (God _opens_ the womb) is the Othello of Israelitish history, a splendid barbarian, little blessed with the soft phrase of peace, familiar with moving accidents by flood and field, who by his valour delivers his country, and by a mysterious fate sacrifices a life dearer to him than his own. A great warrior, he was handicapped in the race of life, and persecuted by his own flesh and blood, because he came into the world with the cruel stain of illegitimacy. All the greater honour will be his if he can burst his birth's invidious bar. Tradition did not preserve the real name of the hero's father, who is simply called Gilead, which was properly the name of a district or its people (see Judges 10:3). Like Ishmael, another unwanted son, Jephthah was driven from his home and cast upon a cold world. But he found his way to the land of Tob (good), which proved a good l...

JEPHTHAH. He will deliver. Note the Fig, _Epanadiplosis_ (App-6), to call attention to the facts of this verse, introducing Jephthah. All was irregular: no king, no judge, no priest. GILEADITE. son of the man Gilead. MAN. Hebrew. _gibbor._ App-14....

_Jephthah_ Hebr. _Yiphtaḥ_, probably a shortened form of Yiphtaḥ-el = _God will open_; cf. Pethah-iah Ezra 10:23. The full form occurs as the name of a town Joshua 19:14; Joshua 19:27. _the Gileadite_ See on Judges 10:3. The land of Gilead generally included the country E. of Jordan between the W. el-Menâḍire (Yarmuk), S. of the Sea of Galilee, and W. Ḥesbân near the upper end of the Dead Sea. Sometimes it included the Moabite territory as far S. as the Arnon (W. el-Môjîb). _Gilead begat Jephthah_ Gilead, properly the name of a region or its population, is here and in...