Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Whom God sets free, or the breaker through, a “mighty man of valour” who delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:1-33), and judged Israel six years (12:7). ” After forty-five years of comparative quiet Israel again apostatized, and in “process of time the children of Ammon made war against Israel” (11:5). In their distress the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob, to which he had fled when driven out wrongfully by his brothers from his father’s inheritance (2), and the people made him their head and captain.
The “elders of Gilead” in their extremity summoned him to their aid, and he at once undertook the conduct of the war against Ammon. Twice he sent an embassy to the king of Ammon, but in vain. War was inevitable. ” Before engaging in war he vowed that if successful he would offer as a “burnt-offering” whatever would come out of the door of his house first to meet him on his return. The defeat of the Ammonites was complete.
“He smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards [Heb. ‘Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter” (Judg. 11:33). The men of Ephraim regarded themselves as insulted in not having been called by Jephthah to go with him to war against Ammon. This led to a war between the men of Gilead and Ephraim (12:4), in which many of the Ephraimites perished. ) “Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead” (7).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
C. 1143-1137. His history is contained in (Judges 11:1; Judges 12:8) He was a Gileadite, the son of Gilead and a concubine. Driven by the legitimate sons from his father’s inheritance, he went to Tob and became the head of a company of freebooters in a debatable land probably belonging to Ammon.
) His fame as a bold and successful captain was carried back to his native Gilead; and when the time was ripe for throwing off the yoke of Ammon, Jephthah consented to become the captain of the Gileadite bands, on the condition, solemnly ratified before the Lord in Mizpeh, that int he event of his success against Ammon he should still remain as their acknowledged head. Vowing his vow unto God, (Judges 11:31) that he would offer up as a burn offering whatsoever should come out to meet him if successful, he went forth to battle.
The Ammonites were routed with great slaughter; but as the conqueror returned to Mizpeh there came out to meet him his daughter, his only child, with timbrels and dancing. The father is heart-stricken; but the maiden asks only for a respite of two months in which to prepare for death. ” The tribe of Ephraim challenged Jephthah’s right to go to war as he had done, without their concurrence, against Ammon. He first defeated them, then intercepted the fugitives at the fords of Jordan, and there put forty-two thousand men to the sword. He judged Israel six years, and died.
It is generally conjectured that his jurisdiction was limited to the transjordanic region. That the daughter of Jephthah was really offered up to God in sacrifice is a conclusion which it seems impossible to avoid. (But there is no word of approval, as if such a sacrifice was acceptable to God.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
JEPH'THAH (whom God sets free), one of the judges of Israel, was the illegitimate son of Gilead, Jud 11:1; and this fact made him so odious to the other children of the family that they banished him from the house, and he took up his residence in the land of Tob, a district of Syria not far from Gilead, and probably the same with Ishtob. 2 Sam 10:8. Here he became the head of a marauding-party; and when a war broke out between the children of Israel and the Ammonites, he probably signalized himself for courage and enterprise.
This led the Israelites to seek his aid as their commander-in-chief; and though he objected at first, on the ground of their ill-usage of him, yet, upon their solemn covenant to regard him as their leader in case they succeeded against the Ammonites, he took command of their army. After some preliminary negotiations with the Ammonites, in which the question of the right to the country is discussed with great force and ingenuity, and every attempt to conciliate them proved abortive, the two armies met.
The Ammonites were defeated with great loss of life, and their country secured by the Israelites. On the eve of the battle Jephthah made a vow that if he obtained the victory he would devote to God whatever should come forth from his house to meet him on his return home. This turned out to be his daughter, an only child, who welcomed his return with music and dancing.
Jephthah was greatly afflicted by this occurrence; but his daughter cheerfully consented to the performance of his vow, which took place at the expiration of two months, and the commemoration of the event by the daughters of Israel was required by a public ordinance. Jud 11:34-40. The Ephraimites quarrelled with Jephthah because they had not been invited to join in the war. But Jephthah again put himself at the head of his army, defeated them, and by the word "shibboleth" detected those Ephraimites who tried to cross the Jordan, and slew them. In all, 42,000 Ephraimites, were slain.
Jephthah judged the trans-Jordanic region six years. Jud 12:1-7. The perplexing question what Jephthah did with his daughter will perhaps never obtain a satisfactory answer. " Jud 11:30-31, An unprejudiced reading of the text leads naturally to the conclusion that Jephthah offered her up as a burnt-sacrifice, but the other opinion, that he devoted his daughter to a life of celibacy, is defended by these arguments: 1. V. " But there is a Hebrew word with that meaning. 2.
The emphasis is laid upon "him," which is made to refer to the Lord, and the vow is thus interpreted as contemplating two things: (1) a person to be consecrated to Jehovah, and (2) the additional offering of a burnt-sacrifice. But such a construction would be a solecism in Hebrew. 3. The "burnt-offering" has been taken in a spiritual sense, but that is to put an interpretation upon the word which the Hebrew will not bear. 4. Jephthah could not vow to God a human sacrifice, so abhorrent to him, and so contrary to the whole spirit of the Hebrew religion. Lev 20:2-5; Deut 12:31.
But it must be borne in mind that Jephthah was a rude warrior in the semi-barbaric age of the Judges. Celibacy of a voluntary and religious character was unknown in Israel. Jephthah's daughter, on this supposition, would have been the first and last Hebrew nun. The Jews looked upon the family as a divine ordinance, and upon the unmarried state as a misfortune equalled only by that of being a childless wife.
It may not be correct to say that each Hebrew woman looked forward to being the mother of the Messiah, but at all events to be a mother was to fulfil the function in society God had designed for her. A vow of celibacy, therefore, would have been contrary to the spirit of the Jewish religion as much as a vow of bloody sacrifice. The sojourn of Jephthah's daughter in the mountains for two months is inconsistent with any such dedication to Jehovah.
But if she were to be sacrificed, her home would indeed be filled with too mournful associations, whereas the open air, especially to such a girl, and the solitude of the hills, would be real aids in preparation for death. Jephthah's intense sorrow when she came forth to meet him likewise harmonizes with the literal and natural interpretation.