11:34 When Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter hurrying out 1 to meet him, dancing to the rhythm of tambourines. 2 She was his only child; except for her he had no son or daughter. 11:35 When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! 3 You have brought me disaster! 4 I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” 5 11:36 She said to him, “My father, since 6 you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised. 7 After all, the Lord vindicated you before 8 your enemies, the Ammonites.” 11:37 She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish. 9 For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.” 10 11:38 He said, “You may go.” He permitted her to leave 11 for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills. 12 11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. 13 Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. 14 11:40 Every year 15 Israelite women commemorate 16 the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days. 17
12:1 The Ephraimites assembled 18 and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight 19 with the Ammonites without asking 20 us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” 21
12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. 22 I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. 23 12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, 24 I risked my life 25 and advanced against 26 the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up 27 to fight with me today?” 12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, 28 “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” 29 12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River 30 opposite Ephraim. 31 Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive 32 said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked 33 him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” 34 If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word 35 correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead. 12:7 Jephthah led 36 Israel for six years; then he 37 died and was buried in his city in Gilead. 38
1 tn Heb “Look! His daughter was coming out.”
2 tn Heb “with tambourines and dancing.”
3 tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.
4 tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”
5 tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the
6 tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the
8 tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”
9 tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”
10 tn Heb “Leave me alone for two months so I can go and go down on the hills and weep over my virginity – I and my friends.”
11 tn Heb “he sent her.”
12 tn Heb “on the hills.” The words “as she walked” are supplied.
13 tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.
14 tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”
15 tn Heb “From days to days,” a Hebrew idiom for “annually.”
16 tn Heb “go to commemorate.” The rare Hebrew verb תָּנָה (tanah, “to tell; to repeat; to recount”) occurs only here and in 5:11.
17 tn The Hebrew text adds, “in the year.” This is redundant (note “every year” at the beginning of the verse) and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
18 tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”
19 tn Heb “cross over to fight.”
20 tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”
21 tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”
22 tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”
23 tn Heb “hand.”
24 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
25 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
26 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
27 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
28 tn Heb “because they said.”
29 tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”
30 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.
31 tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.
32 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.
33 tn Heb “say to.”
34 sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.
35 tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew
36 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
37 tn Heb “Jephthah the Gileadite.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
38 tc The Hebrew text has “in the cities of Gilead.” The present translation has support from some ancient Greek textual witnesses.