Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 11

1

And Yiphtah1 the Gileadite was a mighty-one2 of worth,3 and he was the son of a whore woman,4 and Gilead had begotten Yiphtah.5

2

And the woman of Gilead6 begat unto him sons, and the sons of his woman became big,7 and they drove out Yiphtah, and they said unto him, “Thou shalt not inherit in the house of our father, in that the son of an after-woman8 thou art.”

3

And Yiphtah bolted9 from the face of his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob10—and empty men11 gleaned12 unto Yiphtah, and they went forth with him.

4

And it was, after ‹some› days, and the sons of Ammon warred with Israel,

5

and it was, as that the sons of Ammon warred with Israel, and the old-ones13 of Gilead went to take Yiphtah from the land of Tob.

6

And they said unto Yiphtah, “Come and be to us for captain,14 and we shall war with the sons of Ammon.”

7

And Yiphtah said unto the old-ones of Gilead, “Did not ye hate me,15 and drive me out from the house of my father—and ‹upon› what have ye come unto me now, as that ye are in straits?”

8

And the old-ones of Gilead said unto Yiphtah, “For-so now we turn back unto thee16—and go thou with us and war with the sons of Ammon, and be to us for head upon17 all the dwellers of Gilead.”

9

And Yiphtah said unto the old-ones of Gilead, “If ye turn me back unto thee,18 to war with the sons of Ammon, and Yahweh giveth them before my face, I—I shall be for your head.”19

10

And the old-ones of Gilead said unto Yiphtah, “Yahweh shall hear between us if as ‹unto› thy word we do not so.”

11

And Yiphtah went with the old-ones of Gilead, and the people set him upon them for head and for captain, and Yiphtah spoke all his words before the face of Yahweh in Mitspah.

12

And Yiphtah sent forth angels unto the king of the sons of Ammon, to say, “What to me and to thee,20 that thou art come in unto me to war in my land?”

13

And the king of the sons of Ammon said unto the angels of Yiphtah, “‹In› that Israel took my land in their ascent from Egypt, from the Arnon and until the Yabbok and until the Yordan—and now, turn these back in peace.”

14

And Yiphtah added still, and sent forth angels unto the king of the sons of Ammon,

15

and said unto him, “Thus saith Yiphtah: Israel took not the land of Moab and the land of the sons of Ammon,

16

‹in› that, in their ascent from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness until the Red Sea and came into Kadesh,

17

and Israel sent forth angels unto the king of Edom to say, ‘Let me cross, pray, through thy land’—and the king of Edom would not hear. And also unto the king of Moab they sent forth, and he consented not, and Israel dwelt in Kadesh,

18

and they went through the wilderness and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came in from the dawning of the sun unto the land of Moab21 and encamped across the Arnon, and came not into the border of Moab, in that the Arnon is the border of Moab.

19

And Israel sent forth angels unto Sihon king of the Amorites of Heshbon, and said unto him, ‘Let Israel cross, pray, through thy land, until my place,’

20

and Sihon trusted not Israel to cross through his border, and Sihon added all his people and camped in Yahats and warred with Israel,

21

and Yahweh God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them, and Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the dwellers of that land,

22

and they possessed all the borders of the Amorites, from the Arnon and until the Yabbok, and from the wilderness and until the Yordan.

23

And now, Yahweh God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before the face of his people Israel—and thou wouldst dispossess him?

24

Is it not that thou possessest what Khemosh thy god causeth thee to possess, and all that Yahweh our god dispossesses before our face, we possess?

25

And now, art thou as good—better22—than Balak son of Tsippor king of Moab? Did he contending contend with Israel, or warring war with them?

26

In Israel’s dwelling in Heshbon and in her daughters,23 and in Aroer and in her daughters, and in all the cities that are upon the hand24 of the Arnon—three hundred years, and why did ye not deliver them in that time?

27

And I—I have not sinned unto thee, and thou doest me bad to war with me. Yahweh the judge judgeth this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.”

28

And the king of the sons of Ammon hear‹kened› not unto the words of Yiphtah that he sent forth unto him.

29

And the spirit of Yahweh was upon Yiphtah, and he crossed Gilead and Manasheh, and he crossed Mitspeh of Gilead, and from Mitspeh of Gilead he crossed the sons of Ammon.25

30

And Yiphtah vowed a vow unto Yahweh and said, “If giving thou givest the sons of Ammon into mine hands,

31

and it shall be that, coming forth, that which cometh forth from the doors26 of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the sons of Ammon, and it shall be for Yahweh, and I shall ascend it an ascension.”27

32

And Yiphtah crossed unto the sons of Ammon to war with them, and Yahweh gave them into his hands,

33

and he smote them from Aroer and until thou come into Minniyth, twenty cities, and until the brook of Kerems,28 a very big smiting; and the sons of Ammon were ‹laid› low before the face of the sons of Israel.

34

And Yiphtah came into Mitspah, unto his house, and lo, his daughter came forth to meet him with timbrels29 and with dances—30she ‹his› only as-one;31 nothing had he, son nor daughter.

35

And it was that he saw her, and he rent32 his clothes and said, “Aah!33 My daughter, thou hast kneeling knelt me, and thou art with those who rile me,34 and I—I have widened35 my mouth unto Yahweh, and am not able to turn back.”36

36

And she said unto him, “Father, thou hast widened thy mouth unto Yahweh; do unto me as that came forth from thy mouth, after that Yahweh hath done unto thee vengeance on thine enemies, on the sons of Ammon.”

37

And she said unto her father, “Let this thing be done for me: slacken from me two months, and I will go37 and descend upon the mountains, and weep upon my virginity, I and my comrades.”

38

And he said, “Go.” And he sent her forth, and she went, she and her comrades, and wept upon her virginity upon the mountains.

39

And it came to be at the end of two months, and she turned back unto her father, and he did unto her his vow that he had vowed, and she knew not a man; and it is an appointment in Israel,

40

from days to days,38 the daughters of Israel go to talk to39 the daughter of Yiphtah the Gileadite four days in the year.

Footnotes

  1. Yiphtah. I.e., Jephthah. “He Opens.” ↩

  2. mighty-one. The root gbr is used with great variability in scripture, ranging from merely contrastive (man as manly compared to woman; cf. Dt 22:5), to God himself as mighty (Neh 9:32). The head of the word seems to especially connote a hero in the ancient pagan sense, referring to the giants and to Nimrod (Gen 6:4; 10:8); but the same root is used of the floodwaters becoming mighty over the land (Gen 7:18 etc; possibly an ironic reversal). Here in Judges, it connotes especially a man of martial prowess, but in view of the other allusions present in Yiphtah’s introduction, it has an ominous undertone. ↩

  3. worth. The word chayil has no good English equivalent. It refers to the substance or resource that a man has at his command, but can denote a nexus of ideas around wealth (Gen 34:29), force (Ex 14:4), goods (Num 31:9), ability (Ex 18:21), prowess (Dt 3:18), and moral substance (Ruth 3:11). It is tempting to translate it “endowment,” since bracketing out the typical financial use of this word, this does get very close to what the Hebrew seems to communicate. However, endowment comes with an unfortunate sexual connotation that is difficult to bear when paired with gibor, mighty-man, as this word famously is; and it certainly makes for awkward diction. The traditional translation here of “valor” perplexes me (even Alter uses it), as bravery is far removed from the central meaning of the word. Certainly it is connoted—but so is strength, power, skill, grit etc. What is being indicated is a man of considerable faculty, not merely a brave man. However, one must look to the context to know what manner of faculty is in view; exactly the same phrase is used of Bo’az (Ruth 2:1), who is a mighty-one not of war, but of provision and godly dominion; and chayil is also applied to Ruth herself (3:11), who is not a woman of valor but a woman of worth (cf. the same phrase in Proverbs 31:10). ↩

  4. whore woman. Thus, very likely a Cana’anite woman, as with Abi-Melek’s mother. The chiastic structure of this verse places the “mighty-one” alongside the “whore-woman,” which might be taken as a surprising and optimistic reversal—a great man coming from a debased woman. But the chief allusions of the text point in the other direction: firstly there is the recent story of a character of similar description, Abi-Melek; secondly there is the head of this word in Genesis 6:4, the mighty-ones born to whorish women, which led to such an increase of wickedness that God destroyed the whole world. Let us not forget, however, that the kings of Y’hudah were promised from the line of Perez, the bastard son of a whore (Gen 38). Jordan points out that this may be why there are no judges from the line of Y’hudah; as bastards they were excluded until the tenth generation (David; Dt 23:2–3). But by the same token, Yiphtah, then, is also unqualified for the job (much as Deborah was). ↩

  5. Gilead had begotten Yiphtah. It is not clear whether Gilead is coincidentally the name of Yiphtah’s father, or whether Yiphtah’s origin is being depicted in corporate terms. Judges 12:7 gives us no specific burial place; merely “one of the cities of Gilead.” He seems to be deliberately “delocalized” and “deindividualized,” making his begetting symbolic of all Gilead, and thus all Israel. But this provokes a paradox, for it would seem that if Yiphtah is symbolic of the illegitimate mixture of Yahwism and Ba’alism, then at least symbolically he ought to be “driven out of his father’s house”—i.e., removed from Israel. Why then does he become the means of their salvation? Partly because God enjoys ironic reversals, but perhaps also because God intends to save not just Israel, but all the nations. The religions of Cana’an have no inheritance in the house of the Father, but certainly the Cana’anites do (cf. 1 Ki 17:8–16; Mt 15:27). ↩

  6. woman of Gilead. Not the whore-woman, but rather his wife. ↩

  7. became big. I.e., they grew up. ↩

  8. an after-woman. Or “an other woman.” Just as Yahweh charges Israel with leaving him for “after-gods” (Jdg 10:13) so Yiphtah’s half-brothers charge him with being the son of similar whoring. This sets up a stark irony, in that it shall be Yiphtah who saves them and preserves the inheritance of Israel; but it also adds further to the growing weight of implication that Yiphtah—absent God’s grace—is destined to bring a flood upon Israel that will wipe it out. ↩

  9. bolted. The same verb used of Yotham’s flight from Abi-Melek, thus further creating an allusive connection with a studied ambiguity. Will Yiphtah take up the mantle of righteous Yotham, or of wicked Abi-Melek? ↩

  10. from the face of his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. The parallel to Genesis 4:16 is striking: “And Cain went forth from the face of Yahweh and dwelt in the land of Nod.” Nod means to sway or be aimless; Yahweh curses Cain to “n’a and nad” in the land—to flutter and sway, or in the traditional translation, to be a “fugitive and a wanderer.” Nod is the nominal form of nad, to sway, and is connected through consonance and rhyme with n’a, the same word Yotham uses of Abi-Melek, the tree who “flutters” over the others. Thus Yiphtah is again connected to Abi-Melek, this time by evoking the primordial brother-slayer, Cain. This all bodes very ill—except that the allusion ends with a surprise: Yiphtah dwells somewhere quite different, the land of Tob, “Goodness.” This, too, seems to cast Yiphtah in a symbolic light; Tob is a remote region of northeast Gilead, but the name cannot help but depict Yiphtah as enjoying a good land, while God turns the land of Israel bad because of their sin. ↩

  11. empty men. One of the same terms used to describe the gang Abi-Melek hired in Judges 9:4. Everything about Yiphtah’s story is shadowed by ominous allusion and moral ambiguity—a feature that only becomes more evident in the question of what happens to his daughter. He is a mixture of good and bad, and that right ambiguously, just as Israel is. However, this particular motif also presages David’s descent into the cave of Adullam, and thus must be interpreted as a turning-point in God beginning to redeem and adopt the pattern of Cain into his rightful place in the kingdom. “Empty” men are not necessarily vain men, as most translations have it, but may be (as with David) men empty of means or contentment (1 Sam 22:2). They have nothing to lose, but we should be careful about assuming they have nothing of moral substance. ↩

  12. gleaned. I.e., gathered, but this is the word specifically used of gathering scraps in scripture, traditionally and rightly translated “glean.” These men are the dregs of society—the scraps left behind that no one else wanted. ↩

  13. old-ones. Or “elders,” but I have become convinced that an important sense of the word is lost in the English term elder, as evidenced by the translation of the equivalent word in Greek, presbyteros, in Revelation 4: when rendered “elder,” it does not naturally refer to angelic rulers, which these almost certainly are; when rendered “old-one” this difficulty evaporates. As in Greek, the Hebrew root, zqn, simply means old. ↩

  14. commander. The word qatsin has the sense of being the one who decides. ↩

  15. did ye not hate me. The fact that Yiphtah blames the old-ones of Gilead for driving him out further strengthens the case that we should read his story somewhat symbolically. They are the brothers in his “father’s house,” so this house must be the tribe of Gilead as a whole. ↩

  16. turn back unto thee. This is an expression of repentance and even fealty; cf. the same phrase in 1 Kings 12:27, where Yarab’am (Jeroboam) worries that the heart of the people will “turn back unto” their lord. ↩

  17. head upon. Or “head over,” but “upon” is a more consistent rendering of al and, to my mind, “head over” undermines the concrete imagery of the body that scripture is drawing on. A head “over” a body would be a floating head; but heads do not float, they are set upon our bodies (cf. v. 10). ↩

  18. turn me back unto thee. Or, “take me back,” but the word is the same as that used by the old-ones in verse 8. ↩

  19. I—I shall be for your head. The Hebrew includes an explicit pronoun for emphasis; Yiphtah is making sure there is no question that, as it were, “I myself will indeed be your head.” ↩

  20. What to me and to thee. In English, we might say, “What is between you and me?” (so Alter). ↩

  21. from the dawning of the sun unto the land of Moab. I.e., from the east of the land of Moab. ↩

  22. as good—better. In Hebrew, literally “good good.” The sense is “are you really better?” (Alter, NET). ↩

  23. in her daughters. I.e., her daughter towns: the subsidiary or surrounding villages. ↩

  24. upon the hand. I.e., along the sides of the Arnon. ↩

  25. crossed the sons of Ammon. The Hebrew lacks a preposition here, which to my amateur eye seems to intentionally evoke the sense which I have preserved in English, that he is “crossing” them, rather than crossing “to” them. We have previously seen this sense used in Judges when Israel “crosses” God’s covenant (Judges 2#20); here it seems that their savior is crossing the ones who defy his covenant. ↩

  26. doors. The Hebrew form is dual, as opposed to merely plural. ↩

  27. ascend it an ascension. Not, in fact, “offer it up as a burnt offering,” as most Bibles have it. There is no mention of burning in the text, nor in fact of offering. It is true that the “ascension” was generally the second main sacrifice of temple worship, “ascended” in fire on the altar—but the actual terms used here do not in any sense require this. What Yiphtah is doing here is not promising a sacrifice by fire, but rather vowing a devotion (cherem), as per Leviticus 27. Such devotions would be by fire for something or someone profane, as God’s holiness consumes such things (e.g., Num 21:2). However, as both Rahab and the Gibeonites illustrate (Josh 6; 9), unclean people who are devoted (Dt 7:2) become redeemed by covenant—even a rash covenant in the case of the Gibeonites—and rather than being burned, are devoted to the Lord’s service at the tabernacle: they become owned by God. ↩

  28. the brook of Kerems. I am taking an editorial liberty here; the Hebrew says avel keramim, which means the brook or meadow of vineyards. Many Bible versions leave this untranslated as a place name: Abel Keramim. I have chosen to translate avel but leave keramim transliterated (correctly converted into an English plural), on the assumption that there is a play on words here: the term cherem, pronounced almost identically, means to devote as most holy, and features prominently in holy war against God’s enemies; moreover it appears to be exactly what Gideon then does with his daughter. ↩

  29. timbrels. Or tambourines, but the Hebrew word is only two syllables. ↩

  30. dances. Or ring-dances, as the Hebrew seems to particularly denote spinning or turning in a circle. ↩

  31. as-one. The term yachid is generally translated here as “only,” but it is a much more specialized word. It occurs only five other times before this in scripture, three of which are referring to the unique status of Itzhak (Isaac) as Abraham’s “only” son (Gen 22:2, 12, 16). But of course Itzhak was not Abraham’s “only” son, for there was also Ishmael. Rather, Itzhak was as Abraham’s only son; in terms of the covenant promise, he was as one single son, an “only child” of the promise, for according to God’s word, no other child could perpetuate the holy seed. Thus Itzhac was “as one,” which is the same way in which the word is used elsewhere, and relatively commonly, in scripture. E.g., “In the heads of the people being gathered, the tribes of Israel as one” (Dt 33:5). Typically this is translated “together” (and in most other places it is used), but “as one” preserves the meaning in both cases. ↩

  32. rent. The Hebrew contains a play on words: his daughter comes to qara (meet) him, and he qara’ (rent) his clothes. ↩

  33. Aah. Literally “ahah.” The onomatopoeia is very similar in English, and so I have more or less transliterated it, rather than using the traditional and no-doubt inappropriately refined “alas.” However, in English “ahah” generally indicates a realization, rather than anguish; hence my adjustment to “aah.” ↩

  34. with those who rile me. In Hebrew this phrase is a single verb; the word “rile” here is typically translated “trouble,” famously in 1 Kings 18:17, where Ahab calls Eliyahu (Elijah) a “troubler” of Israel. But the word properly refers to riling, stirring, or agitating water; the English word “trouble” is insufficiently specific for this, and is better used of other words in Hebrew. ↩

  35. widened. Or “opened,” but this is patsah, not patach, the usual word for open. Alter argues that the Hebrew here incorporates a “crucial pun,” in that patsah is very similar to patach, which is the root of Yiphtah’s name (“He Opens”). I am not sure how much weight to place on this; the pun is certainly muted by the choice of a different word, however similar. I believe the key point is not a pun on Yiphtah’s name, but rather the highly specific connotation of patsah, which is used only 15 times in scripture, always of mouths, and almost exclusively in connection with judgement or distress. Its head is Genesis 4:11, where the ground “widens” its mouth to take Hevel’s (Abel’s) blood, from whence it cries out to God. It is only used twice again before Judges 11, both times of the ground widening its mouth (Num 16:30; Dt 11:6). In Psalm 22:13, “they widen upon me their mouth, a lion tearing and roaring;” similarly in Lamentations 2:16; 3:46. In Ezekiel 2:8, he must “widen” his mouth to eat the scroll of lamentation, mourning, and woe. Three times in Psalm 144, the word is used of God “freeing” David (by my interpretation, using his mouth—possibly as a mother lion, for instance, snatches up her cubs, but more likely in my view by being swallowed up by God; a theme developed throughout scripture; cf. the opposite image, of losing salvation, in Rev. 3:16). These represent the vast bulk of occasions where patsah is used, and are all clearly connected by a common theme of being swallowed in connection to judgment. Thus in Judges 11, Yiphtah, by choosing this word rather than the regular patach, represents his “big mouth” as the object of his own judgment; he opened it to make a vow, and in so doing, has inadvertently swallowed up his own ambition. Cf. Job 35:16: “And Job in vapor widens his mouth; without knowledge, words he multiplieth.” ↩

  36. turn back. This word, sum, is a key motif in Yiphtah’s story—but only if it is consistently translated so as to be visible as such in the text! Indeed, Yiphtah cannot turn back a vow made to Yahweh; Deuteronomy 23:21–23 makes this clear, and in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira are executed for violating such a vow. ↩

  37. go. Or “walk.” ↩

  38. from days to days. In English we might say “from time to time,” but the idiom in Hebrew seems to specifically mean every year. ↩

  39. talk to. I am following Young here. This is a very rare word in Hebrew, appearing only here and in Judges 5#11, where it refers to some kind of speaking or recounting of God’s deeds. Most translators, reading Yiphtah’s sacrifice of his daughter as a “burnt offering,” are oriented toward translating it as “commemorate” or “mourn.” But the lamed would generally indicate that the verb is done “to” Yiphtah’s daughter, and a right interpretation of Yiphtah himself as a pattern of the Savior certainly excludes him making a vow to burn anyone under the inspiration of the Spirit. Since his daughter weeps for her virginity, not her life, we must understand his vow in a similar sense to the one made by Hannah: his daughter is dedicated to service of God at the tabernacle—probably the kind of service mentioned in Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22 There is a NT corollary to this in the service of women to the incarnate tabernacle in Matthew 27:55–56; Luke 8:2–3; and later in the widows’ roll (1 Tim 5:9). All these women are committed to the service of the Bridegroom, to the exclusion of serving a husband of their own—they have left this familial attachment for the sake of attachment to the Lord (cf. Mt 19:29). ↩