Chris Clerc
Ed Jones
Spring, 1997
The Story of Jephthah
Judges 11, 1-40
Jephthah was son of Gilead, and his mother was a prostitute. After growing older, because of the fact that his mother was not the same as theirs, his brothers threw him out of their household. After being kicked out, he enlisted a group a followers in his new land of Tob. He made his living by raiding and robbing
Later, the Ammonites waged was on Israel. Needing a military leader, the same sons of Gilead who had thrown him out asked Jephthah to led them into battle.
"Why do you come to me, after sending me away?" Jephthah asked them.
"If you lead us into battle, we will allow you back into our country," they replied.
"I will be your leader, if the Lord grants me victory over the Ammonites," Jephthah answered. The elders of Gilead pledged their loyalty and made him their commander.
At first Jephthah tried to restore peace between Gilead and the Ammonites. The king of the Ammonites did not listen to Jephthah's messages, and so both countries prepared for war.
The spirit of the Lord came to Jephthah. Then was when Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. "If I defeat the Ammonites, the first person to greet me as I come home in triumph shall belong to the Lord. I will offer him up as a holocaust."
As Jephthah had asked the Lord, the Ammonites were conquered and Israel gained control over all the Ammonites. But much to his dismay the first person he saw when he came home was his only daughter, who was also his only child.
"Father," she told him," you have made a vow with the Lord. Do with me as you have promised God. All I ask is that you spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountain and mourn my virginity with my companions."
Jephthah allowed her to go and when she returned he did to her as he had promised. She had never been intimate with a man. Then became tradition for Israelite women to mourn the daughter of Jephthah for four days out of the year.