Through My Bible Yr 01 – June 09
Judges 11:29 – 12:15
Judges 11
Jephthahās Battle With Ammon and His Vow
29Ā Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh. Then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went out against the Ammonites.
30Ā Jephthah had made a vow to the Lord. He said, āIf you indeed give the Ammonites into my hand, 31Ā then whoever or whatever [1] comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer it up as a whole burnt offering.ā
32Ā So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to wage war against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33Ā Jephthah struck them down from Aroer all the way to the vicinity of Minnith, twenty cities, as far as Abel Keramimāa great slaughter. Thus the Ammonites were humbled before the people of Israel.
34Ā But when Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to greet him with drums and dancing! She was his one and only child. Besides her, he had no son or daughter. 35Ā So, as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothing and cried out, āOh no, my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have become a source of misery for me. I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!ā
36Ā She said to him, āMy father, since you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me exactly what came out of your mouth, since the Lord has carried out vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.ā 37Ā She also said to her father, āDo this one thing for me: Give me two months reprieve, so that I may go out into the mountains and weep for my virginityāI and my friends.ā
38Ā Her father said, āGo,ā and he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went and wept over her virginity there on the mountains. 39Ā When the two months came to an end, she returned to her father, and he carried out the vow that he had made regarding her. She never was intimate with a man.
This became a custom in Israel: 40Ā From year to year the daughters of Israel go out to hold a memorial service for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days each year.
Jephthahās Battle With Ephraim
Judges 12
1Ā At that time the men of Ephraim were called to arms. They crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, āWhy did you cross over to wage war against the Ammonites, but you did not invite us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you in it.ā
2Ā Jephthah said to them, āI was a man involved in a bitter disputeāI and my people against the Ammonites. I called you out to arms, but you did not rescue me from their hand. 3Ā When I saw that you were not coming to rescue me, I took my life into my hands. I crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. So why have you come up against me this day to wage war against me?ā
4Ā So Jephthah summoned all the men of Gilead and waged war against Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck down Ephraim, because the Ephraimites had said, āYou Gileadites are nothing but renegades [2] from Ephraim and Manasseh.ā
5Ā The men of Gilead captured the fords across the Jordan that led to Ephraim. Whenever an Ephraimite fleeing from the battle said, āLet me cross over,ā the men of Gilead asked him, āAre you an Ephraimite?ā If he said, āNo,ā 6Ā they said to him, āPlease say, āShibboleth.āā But if he instead said, āSibboleth,ā because he could not pronounce the word correctly, [3] they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.
7Ā Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead.
The Ninth Judge: Ibzan
8Ā After him Ibzan from Bethlehem judged Israel. 9Ā He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He sent the thirty daughters outside his clan for marriage, and for his sons he brought in thirty wives from outside his clan. He judged Israel for seven years. 10Ā Then Ibzan died, and he was buried at Bethlehem.
The Tenth Judge: Elon
11Ā After him Elon from Zebulun judged Israel. He judged Israel for ten years. 12Ā Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
The Eleventh Judge: Abdon
13Ā After him Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon judged Israel. 14Ā He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He judged Israel for eight years. 15Ā Then Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon died, and he was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Footnotes
- Judges 11:31 The Hebrew form could include persons or animals. In light of subsequent events it is clear that the wording of the vow did not exclude people.
- Judges 12:4 The word renegades is a charge that the Gileadites were not real Israelites because they had remained east of the Jordan.
- Judges 12:6 The dialect dilemma cannot be adequately reproduced by the Hebrew alphabet in use today. These two sounds in question originally may have been similar to th and sh sounds, yielding pronunciations approximating thibboleth and shibboleth. The unfortunate Ephraimites could not say thibboleth because their dialect did not have this th sound. Their difficulty was similar to the difficulty many non-English-speakers have in producing the th in this.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage VersionĀ®, EHVĀ®, Ā© 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.