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    Judges · 40 verses

    Judges 11

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    Jephthah won a war and came home to the sound of dancing, only to find his vow waiting in the doorway.

    The outcast is recalledvv. 1–11

    Jephthah begins in a tangle of family arrangements: a mighty man of valor, the son of a prostitute, expelled by his brothers from Gilead’s inheritance. In Tob, worthless men gather around him. Then the elders of Gilead, discovering that an outcast can be extremely useful in a crisis, fetch him back and offer him command. Jephthah makes them say plainly that he will be leader, and repeats the terms before the LORD at Mizpah.

    A lawsuit conducted by messengervv. 12–28

    Before fighting, Jephthah sends a remarkably long explanation to the king of the Ammonites. The dispute becomes a tour through Israel’s remembered route: Egypt, the wilderness, Kadesh, the bypassed lands of Edom and Moab, and the battle with Sihon at Jahaz. Jephthah insists that Israel took the Amorite land, not the land of Moab or Ammon, and adds the wonderfully pointed question of why the land was left unclaimed for three hundred years. The king pays no heed, which rather spoils the legal conference.

    The vow comes out to meet himvv. 29–40

    The Spirit of the LORD comes upon Jephthah, and he advances against the Ammonites. Then he makes a vow broad enough to admit almost anything through his door: whatever comes out to greet him will belong to the LORD, and he will offer it as a burnt offering. The victory is immediate and enormous—twenty cities—and the homecoming is festive, with tambourines and dancing. Unfortunately, the first person through the door is Jephthah’s only child. She asks for two months in the mountains with her friends to mourn her virginity; the chapter explains neither the shape of that mourning nor why virginity is its object. It does say that she had never had relations with a man, and that Jephthah did to her as he had vowed. Thereafter, four days each year belong to the lament of Jephthah’s daughter.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Judg 11:1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

    2. Judg 11:2And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”

    3. Judg 11:3So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.

    4. Judg 11:4Some time later, when the Ammonites fought against Israel

    5. Judg 11:5and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

    6. Judg 11:6“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”

    7. Judg 11:7Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”

    8. Judg 11:8They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.”

    9. Judg 11:9But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”

    10. Judg 11:10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”

    11. Judg 11:11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.

    12. Judg 11:12Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?”

    13. Judg 11:13The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”

    14. Judg 11:14Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites

    15. Judg 11:15to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.

    16. Judg 11:16But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

    17. Judg 11:17Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

    18. Judg 11:18Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border.

    19. Judg 11:19And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land into our own place.’

    20. Judg 11:20But Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So he gathered all his people, encamped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

    21. Judg 11:21Then the LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, who defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country,

    22. Judg 11:22seizing all the land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

    23. Judg 11:23Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you now possess it?

    24. Judg 11:24Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.

    25. Judg 11:25Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?

    26. Judg 11:26For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon, Aroer, and their villages, as well as all the cities along the banks of the Arnon. Why did you not take them back during that time?

    27. Judg 11:27I have not sinned against you, but you have done me wrong by waging war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

    28. Judg 11:28But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.

    29. Judg 11:29Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.

    30. Judg 11:30Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand,

    31. Judg 11:31then whatever comes out the door of my house to greet me on my triumphant return from the Ammonites will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

    32. Judg 11:32So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hand.

    33. Judg 11:33With a great blow he devastated twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

    34. Judg 11:34And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.

    35. Judg 11:35As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.”

    36. Judg 11:36“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me as you have said, for the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.”

    37. Judg 11:37She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”

    38. Judg 11:38“Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity upon the mountains.

    39. Judg 11:39After two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she had never had relations with a man. So it has become a custom in Israel

    40. Judg 11:40that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

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    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 248 passages were voted onto 35 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 1Hebrews 11:32And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,
    • 1Judges 6:12And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
    • 12 Kings 5:1Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
    • 3Judges 9:4So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.
    • 111 Samuel 10:17After this, Samuel summoned the people to the LORD at Mizpah
    • 11Judges 20:1Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
    • 30Genesis 28:20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
    • 7Proverbs 17:17A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
    • 7Revelation 3:9As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.
    • 7Genesis 45:4–5Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt!
    • 10Jeremiah 42:5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act upon every word that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.
    • 11Judges 10:17Then the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, and the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.
    • 11James 1:5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
    • 27Genesis 16:5Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
    • 271 Samuel 24:12May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you, but my hand will never be against you.
    • 271 Samuel 24:15May the LORD be our judge and decide between you and me. May He take notice and plead my case and deliver me from your hand.”

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