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Judges 12:2 King James Version (KJV)

2 And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands.


Judges 12:2 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

2 And Jephthah H3316 said H559 unto them, I and my people H5971 were H1961 at great H3966 strife H376 H7379 with the children H1121 of Ammon; H5983 and when I called H2199 you, ye delivered H3467 me not out of their hands. H3027


Judges 12:2 American Standard (ASV)

2 And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye saved me not out of their hand.


Judges 12:2 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

2 And Jephthah saith unto them, `A man of great strife I have been (I and my people) with the Bene-Ammon, and I call you, and ye have not saved me out of their hand,


Judges 12:2 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

2 And Jephthah said to them, "I and my people had a great feud with the Ammonites; and when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand.


Judges 12:2 World English Bible (WEB)

2 Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand.


Judges 12:2 Bible in Basic English (BBE)

2 And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in danger, and the children of Ammon were very cruel to us, and when I sent for you, you gave me no help against them.

Cross Reference

Judges 11:12-33 KJV

And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land? And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon: And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh. Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab. And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan. So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it? Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess. And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them, While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time? Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Judges 12

Commentary on Judges 12 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-3

Jephthah's War with the Ephraimites, and Office of Judge. - Judges 12:1. The jealousy of the tribe of Ephraim, which was striving after the leadership, had already shown itself in the time of Gideon in such a way that nothing but the moderation of that judge averted open hostilities. And now that the tribes on the east of the Jordan had conquered the Ammonites under the command of Jephthah without the co-operation of the Ephraimites, Ephraim thought it necessary to assert its claim to take the lead in Israel in a very forcible manner. The Ephraimites gathered themselves together, and went over צפונה . This is generally regarded as an appellative noun ( northward ); but in all probability it is a proper name, “to Zaphon ,” the city of the Gadites in the Jordan valley, which is mentioned in Joshua 13:27 along with Succoth, that is to say, according to a statement of the Gemara , though of a very uncertain character no doubt, Ἀμαθοῦς ( Joseph . Ant. xiii. 13, 5, xiv. 5, 4; Bell. Judg. i. 4, 2, Reland , Pal. pp. 308 and 559-60), the modern ruins of Amata on the Wady Rajîb or Ajlun , the situation of which would suit this passage very well. They then threatened Jephthah, because he had made war upon the Ammonites without them, and said, “ We will burn thy house over thee with fire. ” Their arrogance and threat Jephthah opposed most energetically. He replied (Judges 12:2, Judges 12:3), “ A man of strife have I been, I and my people on the one hand, and the children of Ammon on the other, very greatly, ” i.e., I and my people had a severe conflict with the Ammonites. “ Then I called you, but ye did not deliver me out of their hand; and when I saw that thou (Ephraim) didst not help me, I put my life in my hand ” (i.e., I risked my own life: see 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Samuel 28:21; Job 13:14. The Kethibh אישׂמה comes from ישׂם : cf. Genesis 24:33), “ and I went against the Ammonites, and Jehovah gave them into my hand. ” Jephthah's appeal to the Ephraimites to fight against the Ammonites it not mentioned in Judg 11, probably for no other reason than because it was without effect. The Ephraimites, however, had very likely refused their co-operation simply because the Gileadites had appointed Jephthah as commander without consulting them. Consequently the Ephraimites had no ground whatever for rising up against Jephthah and the Gileadites in this haughty and hostile manner; and Jephthah had a perfect right not only to ask them, “ Wherefore are ye come up against me now ( lit . 'this day'), to fight against me? ” but to resist such conduct with the sword.


Verse 4

He therefore gathered together all the men (men of war) of Gilead and smote the Ephraimites, because they had said, “ Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh. ” The meaning of these obscure words is probably the following: Ye Gileadites are a mob gathered together from Ephraimites that have run away; “ye are an obscure set of men, men of no name, dwelling in the midst of two most noble and illustrious tribes” ( Rosenmller ). This contemptuous speech did not apply to the tribes of Reuben and Gad as such, but simply to the warriors whom Jephthah had gathered together out of Gilead. For the words are not to be rendered erepti Ephraim, “the rescued of Ephraim,” as they are by Seb . Schmidt and Stud ., or to be understood as referring to the fact that the Gileadites had found refuge with the Ephraimites during the eighteen years of oppression on the part of the Ammonites, since such an explanation is at variance with the use of the word פּליט , which simply denotes a fugitive who has escaped from danger, and not one who has sought and found protection with another. The Ephraimites had to pay for this insult offered to their brethren by a terrible defeat.


Verse 5-6

When the Gileadites had beaten the Ephraimites, they took the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites (or towards Ephraim: see Judges 3:28; Judges 7:24), to cut off their retreat and prevent their return to their homes. And “ when fugitives of Ephraim wanted to cross, the men of Gilead asked them, Art thou Ephrathi, ” i.e., an Ephraimite? And if he said no, they made him pronounce the word Shibboleth (a stream or flood, as in Psalms 69:3, Psalms 69:16; not an ear of corn, which is quite unsuitable here); “ and if he said, Sibboleth, not taking care to pronounce it correctly, they laid hold of him and put him to death at the fords of the Jordan. ” In this manner there fell at that time, i.e., during the whole war, 42,000 Ephraimites. The “ fugitives of Ephraim ” were the Ephraimites who had escaped from the battle and wished to return home. The expression is used here in its ordinary sense, and not with the contemptuous sense in which the Ephraimites had used it in Judges 12:4. From this history we learn quite casually that the Ephraimites generally pronounced sh (shin) like s (samech). הכין is used elliptically for לב הכין , to direct his heart to anything, pay heed (compare 1 Samuel 23:22; 1 Chronicles 28:2, with 2 Chronicles 12:14; 2 Chronicles 30:19).


Verse 7

Jephthah judged Israel six years, though most probably only the tribes on the east of the Jordan. When he died, he was buried in one of the towns of Gilead. The plural גלעד בּערי is used quite indefinitely, as in Genesis 13:12; Nehemiah 6:2, etc. (see Ges . Lehrgeb. p. 665), simply because the historian did not know the exact town.


Verses 8-15

Of these three judges no particular deeds are related, just as in the case of Tola and Jair (see the remarks on Judges 10:1). But it certainly follows from the expression אחריו ויּשׁפּט (Judges 12:8, Judges 12:11, Judges 12:13) that they were one after another successors of Jephthah, and therefore that their office of judge also extended simply over the tribes on the east of the Jordan, and perhaps the northern tribes on this side.

Judges 12:8-10

Ibzan sprang from Bethlehem ,-hardly, however, the town of that name in the tribe of Judah, as Josephus affirms (Ant. v. 7, 13), for that is generally distinguished either as Bethlehem “of Judah” (Judges 17:7, Judges 17:9; Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 17:12), or Bethlehem Ephratah (Micah 5:1), but probably Bethlehem in the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 9:15). He had thirty sons and thirty daughters, the latter of whom he sent away החוּצה (out of his house), i.e., gave them in marriage, and brought home thirty women in their places from abroad as wives for his sons. He judged Israel seven years, and was buried in Bethlehem.

Judges 12:11-12

His successor was Elon the Zebulunite, who died after filling the office of judge for ten years, and was buried at Aijalon , in the land of Zebulun. This Aijalon has probably been preserved in the ruins of Jalûn , about four hours' journey to the east of Akka, and half an hour to the S.S.W. of Mejdel Kerun (see V. de Velde , Mem. p. 283).

Judges 12:13-15

He was followed by the judge Abdon , the son of Hillel of Pirathon . This place, where Abdon died and was buried after holding the office of judge for eight years, was in the land of Ephraim, on the mountains of the Amalekites (Judges 12:15). It is mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:30 and 1 Chronicles 11:31 as the home of Benaiah the hero; it is the same as Φαραθώ (read Φαραθόν ) in 1 Macc. 9:50, and Joseph . Ant. xiii. 1, 3, and has been preserved in the village of Feráta , about two hours and a half to the S.S.W. of Nabulus (see Rob . Bibl. Res. p. 134, and V. de Velde , Mem. p. 340). On the riding of his sons and daughters upon asses, see at Judges 10:4.