JEPHTHAH (∏∏5), Ιe<∕>0dε), one of the “judges” of Israel, was an illegitimate son of “Gilead,” and, being expelled from his father’s house by his lawful brethren, took refuge in the Syrian land of Tob, where he gathered around him a powerful band of homeless men like himself. The Ammonites pressing hard on his countrymen, the “elders of Gilead” called for his help, which he consented to give on condition that in the event of victory the supremacy should be conferred upon him. The success of his arms was complete, and he became in consequence “judge” of Israel until his death six years afterwards. His name is best known in history and literature in connexion with his “vow,” which led to the sacrifice of his daughter as a burnt offering on his return from the war. Much reluctance has been, and continues to be, shown by many writers in accepting the plain sense of the Scripture narrative on this point, —reluctance which proceeds to a large extent on unwarranted assumptions as to the stage of ethical development which had been reached in Israel in the period of the judges, or at the time when the narrative took shape. Several modern writers, on the other hand, are disposed to find a mythical element in the history of Jephthah. In this connexion weight has been laid on his name, “the opener,” on the fact that Gilead is not a personal name, and particularly on the circumstance that what is related about his daughter appears to be the popular explanation of a ceremony closely allied to well-known rites connected with solar mythology. The story of Jephthah is told in Judg. X. 15-xii. 7; a great part of this section of that book, however, is occupied with an allocution (xi. 14-27) to the children of Ammon which almost certainly belongs to a ...

one of the judges of Israel, was the son of Gilead by a concubine, Judges xi, 1, 2. His father having several other children by his lawful wife, they conspired to expel Jephthah from among them, insisting that he who was the son of a strange woman should have no part of the inheritance with them. Like Ishmael, therefore, he withdrew, and took up his residence beyond Jordan, in the land of Tob, where he appears to have become the chief of a banditti, or marauding party, who probably lived by plunder, Judges xi, 3. In process of time, a war broke out between the Ammonites and the children of Israel who inhabited the country beyond Jordan; and the latter, finding their want of an intrepid and skilful leader, applied to Jephthah to take the command of them. He at first reproached them with the injustice they had done him, in banishing him from his father’s house; but he at length yielded to their importunity, on an agreement that, should he be successful in the war against the Ammonites, the Israelites should acknowledge him for their chief, Judges xi, 4–11. As soon as Jephthah was invested with the command of the Israelites he sent a deputation to the Ammonites, demanding to know on what principle the latter had taken up arms against them. They answered that it was to recover the territory which the former had taken from them on their first coming out of Egypt. Jephthah replied that they had made no conquests in that quarter but from the Amorites; adding, “If you think you have a right to all that Chemosh, your god, hath given you, why should not we possess all that the Lord our God hath conferred on us by right of conquest?” Jephthah’s reasoning availed nothing with the Ammonites; and as the latter persisted in waging war, the former collected his troops ...