The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 119

EXPOSITION. Ver. 29.-Then the Spirit of the Lord was "the son of a strange woman," probably, came upon Jephthah, as upon Othniel, as we have seen, a Syrian (eh. xi. 1-11, upon Gideon, and upon Samson (eh. iii. 16; note), and had passed many years of his life vi. 34 ; xiiL 25 ; xiv. 19 ; xv. 14). He as an exile in Syria. Now it is well :known passed o'7er, i. e. he went all through, Gilead, that human sacrifices were frequently prac- and lllanas.ah,-for the purpose, no doubt, tised in Syria, as they were also by the of collecting forces,-and passed overlllizpeh. Ammonites, who made their children pass It should be to Mizpeh. Mizpeh was the through the fire to Maloch, and it cannot capital and mustering place of his army, and surprise ns that a man brought up as Jeph- his base of operations (eh. x. 17; xi. 11, thah was, and leading the life of a freebooter note). Having organised his forces at Mizpeh at the head of a band of Syrian outlaws, of Gilead, he passed over to the children should have the common Syrian notion of of Ammon, i. e. commenced his attack upou the efficacy of human sacrifices in great the invaders, as it is stated in ver. 32, which emergencies. His language, indeed, about takes up the thread of the narrative, Jehovah and Chemosh in ver. 24 savoured Vers. 30, 31.-And Jephthah vowed a of semi-heathenism. Nor is it any valid vow. This verse and the following go back to objection that we are told in ver. 29 that relate somethin~ which preceded his passing "the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jeph- over to the children of Ammon, viz., his thah." The phrase does not me1Ln that rash and unhappy vow. This is related, as thenceforth he was altogether under the so many things in Scripture are, without guidance of the Holy Spirit, so th1Lt all that note or comment, and the reader must pass he did was inspired by the Spirit of truth his own sentence upon the deed. That and wisdom, but that the Spirit of the Lord sentence can only be one of unreserved con-. inspired him with extraordinary strength demnation on the part of any one acquainted and power for the great task of leading Israel with the spirit and letter of the word of God. to battle against the Ammonites. And I Many attempts have been made to show that will offer. The rendering suggested by Jephthah only contemplated the offering of some, or I will offer, meaning, if the first- an animal in sacrifice ; but the natural and comer is a human being he shall be the indeed necessary interpretation of the words Lortl's, or if it is an animal I will offer it shows that he had a human victim in mind. as a burnt offering, is wholly inadmissible. He could not expect any but a human being Ver. 32. - So Jephthah. The narrator to come forth from the doors of his house, takes up again the thread of the narrative, nor could any but a human being come forth which was interrupted at ver. 29, the words "to meet him "-a common phrase always he passed over 11,r,,to the children of Am11um. spoken of men (Gen. xiv. 17; xxiv. 65; being repeated. Exod. iv. 14; xviii. 7; Numb. xx. 20; 1 Ver. 33.-From Aroer . . . to lllin.nith. Sam. xxv. 34, &c., and below in ver. 34). The Aroer here mentioned seems to be that Obviously, in the greatness of his danger in the tribe of Gad (Numb. xxxii. 34; Josh. and the extreme hazard of his undertaking xiii. 25), now Nahr Ammd.n. Minnith is (eh. xii. 3), ho thought to propitiate God's thought to have beon situated four Roman favour by a terrible and extraordinary vow. miles from Heshbon, on the road to Rabbah Bnt if we ask how Jephth11h came to have of the children of Ammon, afterwards called Buch erroneous notions of the character of Philadelphia. It was called Manith in the God, thc11nswcr is not fnrtoscek. Jcphthah time of Eusobius. The plain of the vine.  126 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [CH, Xl. 29-40