Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 11

The son of an harlot. —These words are rendered this way in all the versions and can hardly have any other meaning. If an inferior wife had been meant, the word used would not have been zonah, but pilgesh, as in Judges 8:31. The word may, however, be used in the harsh sense employed by Jephthah’s brothers, without being strictly accurate (Compare to 1 Chronicles 2:26).

Gilead begat Jephthah. —Here we encounter the same questions as those concerning Tola and Jair. That Gilead is a proper name, not the name of the country mythically personified, may be regarded as certain.

But is this Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, or some later Gilead? Or does “begat” mean “was the ancestor of?” The answer to these questions depends mainly on the insoluble problem of the chronology.

However, we may note two points:

1. Since no other Gilead is mentioned, we should naturally infer that this is the grandson of Manasseh.
2. The fact referred to in the obscure genealogy of 1 Chronicles 7:14–17 seems to show that the family of Manasseh had Syrian (Aramean) connections, and Jephthah’s mother may have been an Aramitess from the district of Tob.

The name Jephthah means “he opens” (the womb).

They thrust out Jephthah. —This was in perfect accordance with the law (Deuteronomy 23:2–3), and with family rules and traditions. Abraham had sent the son of Hagar and the sons of Keturah to found other settlements (Genesis 21:10; Genesis 25:6).

Dwelt in the land of Tob. — A Syrian district on the northeast of Perea (2 Samuel 10:6). It is referred to in 1 Maccabees 5:13; 2 Maccabees 12:17. The name means “good,” but it lends no support to the unfounded allegories that have been based on it.

Vain men. —Judges 9:4.

Went out with him. — Jephthah simply became a kind of Syrian raider. His partly pagan origin, no doubt, negatively influenced his character, just as it had with Abimelech.

In process of time. —The marginal note says, after days, implying the time between Jephthah’s expulsion in early youth and his mature manhood.

The children of Ammon made war. —The fact that this is introduced as a new circumstance, though it has been fully related in Judges 10:8-9; Judges 10:17–18, probably arises from the use of some new, and probably Gileadite, document in these two chapters.

When the children of Ammon made war. —The allusion is to some special threat of invasion (acriter instantibus, Vulgate) at the close of the eighteen years of oppression (Judges 10:9).

To fetch Jephthah. —Because by this time he had made himself a great name as a brave and successful chieftain of marauders, who would doubtless come with him to lead the Gileadites.