John Gill Commentary Judges 11

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour ,
&c.] Jephthah had his name of Gileadite either from his father, whose name was Gilead, or from the city and country in which he was born, which is most likely, and so was of the same country with the preceding judge; and he was a man of great strength and valour, and which perhaps became known by his successful excursions on parties of the enemies of Israel, the Ammonites, being at the head of a band of men, who lived by the booty they got from them:

and he was the son of an harlot ;
the Targum says, an innkeeper; and, according to Kimchi, she was a concubine, which some reckoned no better than a harlot, but such are not usually called so; some Jewish writers will have her to be one of another tribe his father ought not to have married; and others, that she was of another nation, a Gentile, so Josephus ^F3 : and, according to Patricides ^F4 , he was the son of a Saracen woman; but neither of these are sufficient to denominate her a harlot:

and Gilead begat Jephthah ;
he was his son; this was a descendant of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, called after the name of his great ancestor.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 7.
• F4: Apud Selden. de Success. ad leg. Ebr. c. 3. p. 32.

And Gilead's wife bore him sons
It seems that, after the birth of Jephthah, Gilead took him a lawful wife, who bore him sons:

and his wife's sons grew up ;
to the estate of men:

and they thrust out Jephthah :
out of his father's house, his father in all likelihood being dead, or he would not have suffered it, and what follows confirms it that he was dead:

and said unto him, you shall not inherit in our father's house :
as he might not, if the son of an harlot, or of a woman of another tribe, or of a concubine; though as Kimchi, from their Rabbins, observes, the son of such an one might, provided his mother was not an handmaid nor a stranger. And it looks as if this was not rightly done, but that Jephthah was injuriously dealt with by his brethren, of which he complains:

for you are the son of a strange woman :
or of another "woman" ^F5 , that was not their father's lawful wife; or of a woman of another tribe, as the Targum; or of another nation, as others, prostitutes being used to go into foreign countries to get a livelihood, and hide the shame of their families; hence a strange woman, and a harlot, signified the same ^F6 , see (Judges 11:1) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (trxa hva) "mulieris alterius", Pagninus, Montanus; "exterae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Tigurine version.
• F6: "Pro uxore hanc peregrinam", Terent. Audria, Acts 1, scen. 1. l. 118.

Then Jephthah fled from his brethren
Being ill used by them, and a man of spirit and courage, and could not bear to be treated with contempt, nor to live in a dependence on others, and therefore sought to make himself another way:

and dwelt in the land of Tob ;
which Kimchi and Ben Gersom think was the name of the lord and owner of the land; Abarbinel interprets it, a good land, as Tob signifies, so the Targum; but others the name of a city or country, and conjecture it may be the same with Ishtob, and which was not far from the children of Ammon, since they sent thither for assistance, (2 Samuel 10:6) . Jerom ^F7 takes it for a country, in which Jephthah dwelt, but says no more of it. Junius says it was on the entrance of Arabia Deserta, in the Apocypha:``Yea, all our brethren that were in the places of Tobie are put to death: their wives and their children also they have carried away captives, and borne away their stuff; and they have destroyed there about a thousand men.'' ``Then departed they from thence seven hundred and fifty furlongs, and came to Characa unto the Jews that are called Tubieni.'' where the inhabitants of it are called Tobienians or Tubienians:

and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah ;
not wicked men, but empty men, whose pockets were empty; men without money, as Abarbinel interprets it, had nothing to live upon, no more than Jephthah, and he being a valiant man, they enlisted themselves under him:

and went out with him ;
not on any bad design, as to rob and plunder, but to get their living by hunting; or rather by making excursions into the enemy's country, and carrying off booty, on which they lived. Josephus ^F8 says he maintained them at his own expense, and paid them wages.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: De loc. Heb. fol. 25. A.
• F8: Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 7.)

And it came to pass in process of time
Some time after Jephthah had been expelled from his father's house, and he was become famous for his martial genius, and military exploits; or at the close of the eighteen years' oppression of the children of Israel by the Ammonites, or some few days after the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpeh, that the people and princes of Gilead were preparing for war with Ammon, and were thinking of a proper person to be their general:

that the children of Ammon made war against Israel ;
not only passed over Jordan again, and encamped in Gilead, but began to attack them in some place or another, at least threatened them with it, and made motions towards it.

And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against
Israel
Were preparing for it, and had assembled their forces near them, and had began to make some efforts against them:

the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob ;
they did not send messengers to him, but went themselves, partly to show greater respect to him, and partly in hopes of better success, being aware of objections he would make, which they could better answer themselves than a deputation.