DEVOTIONAL FOR MEDITATION--Jephthah, the Mighty Warrior

Jephthah, the Mighty Warrior

Judges 11:1-11, 29-40
Jephthah

Now Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a prostitute, was a

mighty warrior. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.

Gilead's wife also bore him sons; and when his wife's sons

grew up, they drove Jephthah away, saying to him, “You

shall not inherit anything in our father's house; for you are

the son of another woman.” Then Jephthah fled from his

brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws collected

around Jephthah and went raiding with him.



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After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. And

when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of

Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. They

said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, so that we

may fight with the Ammonites.” But Jephthah said to the

elders of Gilead, “Are you not the very ones who rejected

me and drove me out of my father's house? So why do you

come to me now when you are in trouble?” The elders of

Gilead said to Jephthah, “Nevertheless, we have now

turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight

with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the

inhabitants of Gilead.” Jephthah said to the elders of

Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the

Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be

your head.” And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The

LORD will be witness between us; we will surely do as

you say.” So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and

the people made him head and commander over them; and

Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.


Jephthah's Vow

Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he

passed through Gilead and Manasseh. He passed on to

Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on

to the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD,

and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,

then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet

me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be

the LORD's, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” So

Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against

them; and the LORD gave them into his hand. He inflicted

a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood

of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So

the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.


Jephthah's Daughter

Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was

his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and

with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or

daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes,

and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very

low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For

I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take

back my vow.” She said to him, “My father, if you have

opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me according to

what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has

given you vengeance against your enemies, the

Ammonites.” And she said to her father, “Let this thing be

done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and

wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my

companions and I.” “Go,” he said and sent her away for

two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and

bewailed her virginity on the mountains. At the end of two

months, she returned to her father, who did with her

according to the vow he had made. She had never slept

with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that for four

days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to

lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.