Judge Jephthah in Context

Jephthah in Context

I've been thinking about Jephthah this week, and there are two things to note from the outset. The first is the context. After the long saga of Gideon + Abimelek, and before the long saga of Samson, there is a classic bookended structure:

Minor judges (10:1-5)

Jephthah (10:6-12:7)

Minor judges (12:8-15)

We can obviously say a lot more about the structure, but as a starting point the structure of the minor judges either side is used to mark out Jephthah in the centre as a major judge. But if we wanted to fill out the structure a little more, we can see another layer and more parallels: 

Two judges; many sons on many donkeys (10:1-5)

Sin, subjugation, suffering, supplication (10:6-16)

Jephthah the new judge, one of multiple sons, saves Israel (11:1-33)

A stupid vow and the slaughter of a virgin, succeeded by civil war and a shibboleth (11:34-12:7)

Three judges; many sons on many donkeys (12:8-15)

The parallels between the minor judges (two before, three after) are self-evident. Jair (10:3-5) had 30 sons on 30 donkeys ruling 30 towns. Ibzan (12:8-10) had 30 sons (to whom he married 30 women from outside his clan) and 30 daughters (who he married off outside his clan), and Abdon (12:13-15) had 40 sons and 30 grandsons on 70 donkeys. 

We will meet more donkeys in the chapters to come, but we have seen the wiley Aksah upon a donkey securing extra water rights  (1:14-15) and donkey goers are exhorted to pay attention to the call to unity by Deborah (5:10-11). But we have also seen an army slain with a donkey's jawbone (15:15-16) - perhaps having a dig at these wannabe warlords on their donkeys. 

The numbers 30 and 70 come up as well; 30 pops up several times in the Samson saga and in the epilogue (20:31,39), but 70 is both the number of kings mutilated by Adoni-Bezek (1:7) and the number of his own brothers murdered by Abimelek to become leader - a deal involving 70 shekels (8:30; 9:25). Are these new 70 a redemption of the number or simply a continuation? 

But apart from the minor judges, the structure highlights the situation before Jephthah (sin, subjugation, suffering, supplication; 10:6-11) but also that, after Yhwh grants him the victory, things aren't much different (11:34-12:7). The judges to whom Yhwh grants his Spirit (in Jephthah's case, 11:29) are going to become worse and worse leaders, worse and worse examples, and will highlight more and more what a failure it is to trust in human leaders, who cannot (really) save.

The Shortest Judge

The second is that Jephthah leads for the shortest time of all the judges:

That being said, we aren't always told the full details. We sometimes know how long they were judge for (from Tola onwards) and we sometimes know how long there was peace for because of their reign (up to Gideon). It could be that these timespans are coterminous, for example with Gideon it says "During Gideosn't lifetime, the land had peace for forty years." (8:28b) But we don't have the same information for other judges, and there seems to be a judgement in the latter judges (from Tola onwards) in that Israel weren't granted peace after their judge died. 

But Jephthah stands out because he is at the very bottom of the barrel in terms of lengths (not including Shamgar because we know so very little about him), and, even though we are in a sense comparing apples (years of peace) with oranges (years led for), the only information we are given is what we have to work with. That is, 40-80 years is associated with the first four judges, while 6-23 are the years associated with the latter seven. And Jephthah is at the bottom of everything:

• Jephthah: 6
• Ibzan: 7
• Abdon: 8
• Elon: 10
• Samson: 20
• Jair: 22
• Tola: 23
• Gideon: 40

I think why this matters is because Jephthah is not given a clear rebuke from Yhwh despite his evil vow and his evil fulfilment thereof. Rather, Yhwh is silent throughout. His name is invoked, but he is not. The response is threefold:

1. Jephthah's line is finished. His daughter's virginity is emphasised, as is her being his only child. There will be no Jephthaian dynasty.
2. The immediate aftermath to his victory over the enemy is civil war. There will be no united Israel under Jephthah.
3. His leadership (including his two wars) is the shortest of any judge: only six years. His only legacy is to be known as "the one who couldn't shut up"; Jephthah coming from פתח - to open (one's mouth).