¹tn Heb “Now he was the son of a woman, a prostitute, and Gilead fathered Jephthah.”
²tn Heb “bore.”
³tn Heb “in the house of our father.”
⁴tn Or “fled from.”
⁵tn Heb “brothers.”
⁶tn Heb “Empty men joined themselves to Jephthah and went out with him.”
⁷tn Heb “When the Ammonites fought with Israel.”
⁸tn Or “elders.”
⁹tn Heb “went to take Jephthah.”
¹⁰tn Heb “to Jephthah.”
¹¹tn Heb “Did you not hate me and make me leave?”
¹²tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT /k@l* (l*k@/, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words /k@ aO (Oa k@/).
¹³tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of la# bWv (vWb a#l) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.
¹⁴sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word r{av (“head”; “leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their q*x!/, “commander” (v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward—rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.
¹⁵tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”
¹⁶tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
¹⁷tn Heb “places them before me.”
¹⁸tn Some translate the final statement as a question, “will I really be your leader?” An affirmative sentence is preferable. Jephthah is repeating the terms of the agreement in an official manner. In v. 10 the leaders legally agree to these terms.
¹⁹tn Heb “The Lord will be the one who hears between us.” For the idiom /y]B^ um^v* (v*m^u B^y]/, “to hear between”), see Deut 1:16.
²⁰sn The Lord will judge…if we do not do as you say. The statement by the leaders of Gilead takes the form of a legally binding oath, which obligates them to the terms of the agreement.
²¹tn Heb “spoke all his words.” This probably refers to the “words” recorded in v. 9. Jephthah repeats the terms of the agreement at the Lord’s sanctuary, perhaps to ratify the contract or to emphasize the Gileadites’ obligation to keep their part of the bargain. Another option is to translate, “Jephthah conducted business before the Lord in Mizpah.” In this case, the statement is a general reference to the way Jephthah ruled. He recognized the Lord’s authority and made his decisions before the Lord.
²²tn Heb “What to me and to you that…?”
²³tn Or “took”; or “seized.”
²⁴tn Heb “he” (a collective singular).
²⁵tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.
²⁶tc The translation assumes a singular suffix (“[return] it”); the Hebrew text has a plural suffix (“[return] them”), which, if retained, might refer to the cities of the land.
²⁷tn Or “take”; or “seize.”
²⁸tn Heb “For when they went up from.”
²⁹tn Or “went.”
³⁰tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)
³¹tn Heb “did not listen.”
³²tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”
³³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
³⁴tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
³⁵tn Heb “to my place.”
³⁶tn Heb “Sihon.” The proper name (“Sihon”) has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) because of English style; a repetition of the proper name here would be redundant in English.
³⁷tn Heb “all his people” (also in the following verse).
³⁸tn That is, took as its own possession.
³⁹tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the desert to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.
⁴⁰tn Heb “Now.”
⁴¹tn Or “dispossessed.”
⁴²tn Heb “will you dispossess him [i.e., Israel; or possibly “it,” i.e., the territory]?” There is no interrogative marker in the Hebrew text.
⁴³tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the Lord our God dispossesses before us we will possess?” Jephthah speaks of Chemosh as if he is on a par with the Lord God of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Jephthah is polytheistic or that he recognizes the Lord as only a local deity. He may simply be assuming the Ammonite king’s perspective for the sake of argument. Other texts, as well as the extrabiblical Mesha inscription, associate Chemosh with Moab, while Milcom is identified as the god of the Ammonites. Why then does Jephthah refer to Chemosh as the Ammonite god? Ammon had likely conquered Moab and the Ammonite king probably regarded himself as heir of all territory formerly held by Moab. Originally Moab had owned the disputed territory (cf. Num 21:26-29), meaning that Chemosh was regarded as the god of the region (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 203-4). Jephthah argues that Chemosh had long ago relinquished claim to the area (by allowing Sihon to conquer it), while the Lord had long ago established jurisdiction over it (by taking it from Sihon and giving it to Israel). Both sides should abide by the decisions of the gods which had stood firm for three hundred years.
⁴⁴tn The Hebrew grammatical constructions of all three rhetorical questions indicate emphasis, which “really” and “dare to” are intended to express in the translation.
sn Jephthah argues that the Ammonite king should follow the example of Balak, who, once thwarted in his attempt to bring a curse on Israel, refused to attack Israel and returned home (Num 22-24).
⁴⁵tn Or “sinned against you.”
⁴⁶tn Or “evil.”
⁴⁷tn Heb “did not listen to.”
⁴⁸tn Heb “Jephthah’s words which he sent to him.”
⁴⁹tn Heb “was on.”
⁵⁰tn Heb “passed through.”
⁵¹tn Heb “From Mizpah in Gilead he passed through [to] the Ammonites.”
⁵²tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle ax@oYh^ (h^Yox@a, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.
⁵³tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.
⁵⁴tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the Lord’s service, but if an animal comes through the doors, he will offer it up as a sacrifice. However, it is far more likely that the Hebrew construction (vav + perfect) specifies how the subject will become the Lord’s, that is, by being offered up as a sacrifice. For similar constructions, where the apodosis of a conditional sentence has at least two perfects (each with vav) in sequence, see Gen 34:15-16; Exod 18:16.
⁵⁵tn Heb “passed over to.”
⁵⁶tn Heb “with a very great slaughter.”
⁵⁷tn Heb “The Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.”
⁵⁸tn Heb “Look! His daughter was coming out.”
⁵⁹tn Heb “with tambourines and dancing.”
⁶⁰tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.
⁶¹tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”
⁶²tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the Lord and I am not able to return.”
⁶³tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
⁶⁴tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”
⁶⁵tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”
⁶⁶tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”
⁶⁷tn Heb “Leave me alone for two months so I can go and go down on the hills and weep over my virginity—I and my friends.”
⁶⁸tn Heb “he sent her.”
⁶⁹tn Heb “on the hills.” The words “as she walked” are supplied.
⁷⁰tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.
⁷¹tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”
⁷²tn Heb “From days to days,” a Hebrew idiom for “annually.”
⁷³tn Heb “go to commemorate.” The rare Hebrew verb hn`T* (T*n`h, “to tell; to repeat; to recount”) occurs only here and in 5:11.
⁷⁴tn The Hebrew text adds, “in the year.” This is redundant (note “every year” at the beginning of the verse) and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.