Albert Barnes Commentary Judges 11:9

"And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Jehovah deliver them before me, shall I be your head?" — Judges 11:9 (ASV)

Jephthah made his own aggrandizement the condition of his delivering his country. The circumstances of his birth and long residence in a pagan land were not very favorable to the formation of the highest type of character. Yet he has his record among the faithful (Hebrews 11:32).