Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 11:3

"Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him." — Judges 11:3 (ASV)

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.