1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.
Jephthah, the next Judge, is a good example of the way God uses people for his work. Jephthah is not from prized stock. Although his father is from Gilead (also named Gilead), his mother is a prostitute. It is because of this that Jephthah is considered illegitimate and driven away by his family. So he ends up in Tob, a place northeast of Ramoth-Gilead, near the eastern boundary of Israel near northern Ammon. There he is surrounded by “worthless men”. This could mean unseemly men, or it could mean poor men.
4 Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.” 7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?” 8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”
The leaders of Israel knew about Jephthah, so they sought him out. As the Ammonites, a nation that was south of Israel, and also descendants of Lot, were warring against Israel, Israel takes matters into their own hands. They find their leader, but he is reluctant. He has been rejected, in a sense, by Israel. But the leadership is desperate.
9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?” 10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
This shows Israel’s desperation. They are willing to give authority over to someone who is an illegitimate heir in his own family. Mizpah means “watch” or “watchtower”. The idea behind Mizpah is the agreement made between two people, with God as their witness. 12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?” 13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”
Jephthah, now the army commander, meets the leader of the Ammonites and asks a simple questions: why are you in Israel? His reply: because this is our land.
14 Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, 15 saying: “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh. 18 “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border. 19 “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ 20 Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. 21 “Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, 22 capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. 23 “Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. 25 Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? 26 For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” 28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.
Instead of getting into a heater rhetoric, Jephthah crafts a written response. In it, he lays out that Israel justly fought and took the land that is now theirs from the Amorites. In fact, they’ve possessed the land for hundreds of years. What right do the Ammonites have to the land? He further says that if they wanted the land, they could have taken it at any time. He pushes the blame back to the Ammonites. He has done the wrong, not Israel. But it falls on deaf ears.
29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. For the people of the Old Testament, who didn’t have an active indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this was how God gave them the strength and courage to advance against whatever force they were up against. In Jephthah’s case, he was the man picked by Israel, yet God honored that and gave his the spirit-inspired courage to plow ahead against the Ammonites.
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
Did Jephthah need to make a vow to God? No, he already had God filling him with the spirit, giving him the strength and courage that he needed. But he nonetheless makes a foolish vow to God for further provision in battle. This amounts to a bribe: if you allow me to win this battle, I will give you a sacrifice.
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
Jephthah won the battle not because of the extra vow he made, but because God was answering the cry of the people.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”
Jephthah knew God enough to keep his vow. But when his daughter is the one to greet him, it is devastating to him. In that moment he had to see the foolishness of it. In the vow itself, there’s no indication that he wished to perform a human sacrifice. The Hebrew meaning of the verse is closer to “whatever will come out my door,” which could have meant livestock. Whatever the case, he didn’t believe it would be his daughter. Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 talk about making vows and how it’s better not to make them.
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” 38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
If Jephthah did indeed sacrifice his daughter to God, this was misguided at best. God never requires human sacrifice. Deuteronomy 12:31 makes it abundantly clear that human sacrifice was against Mosaic Law. In doing so, Jephthah was perhaps diligent to God but didn’t really understand God’s heart.
But there is chance this was not done. Because she and her friends cried because she would never marry and that she was a virgin, she may have been set aside for service to the tabernacle (Leviticus 27:2-4). This was a practice in that people were “sacrificed” to the tabernacle, or given to the tabernacle for lifelong service. These were called Women Who Assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle of Meeting (Exodus 38:8, 1 Samuel 2:22).
The final piece of the puzzle is that Jephthah is listed in the Hebrews 11 heroes of faith section. Could he be called a hero of faith after committing such a horrible deed against God?