Commentaria in Judices
8. OPPRESSED FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS.—These years cannot be included in the years of the following Judge, namely Jephte, for he presided only six years. Wherefore Serarius would have them be wholly added in the chronology to the years of the other Judges. But in chapter iii I showed that this cannot be. Wherefore these 18 years must be included in the years of the preceding Judge, namely Jair, who presided 22 years. For although Jair strove with all zeal to keep the Israelites in the worship of the one true God, yet they, partly from innate malice and proneness to idols, partly from commerce and intermarriage with the neighbouring idolatrous Gentiles, partly from the continuous peace of 23 years under the judge Thola, abounding in wealth and feasts and growing wanton, turned aside to the idols and vices of the Gentiles; wherefore God, the just avenger of perfidy, at once chastised them, sending upon them the Philistines and Ammonites to despoil and oppress them, and that for 18 years, until they, broken by so many scourges, should cast away the idols in earnest and return penitent to God, who, being thereby reconciled by this penance, delivered them by Jephte, as is plain from what follows. For this is what Scripture foretold, chap. ii, verse 16: “And the Lord raised up judges to deliver them from the hands of those that oppressed them; but they would not hear them, committing fornication with strange gods.”
12. AND CHANAAN.—So also the Septuagint render it. In Hebrew maon, which others retain as if it were the proper name of a place. See St. Jerome in the Hebrew Places: “Maon,” he says, “a region of the Moabites, according to Jeremias,” chap. xlviii, verse 23;
according to the Septuagint, Marinus in his Lexicon and others think that Maon is the same as Bethmaon and Baalmaon, which was a city of the Moabites near the torrent Arnon in the tribe of Ruben. Hence the inhabitants of Maon, 1 Paralip.
where the Septuagint render Minaeans. Hence also the Septuagint, Job chap. ii, verse 11, make Sophar, the friend of Job, king of the Minaeans. But St. Jerome, 2 Paral. xxvi, 7, renders Ammonites. Hence he himself seems to have taken Meonenim by metathesis for Ammonim, that is, Ammonites. But in the former place, 1 Paral. iv, 41, he renders inhabitants, for this meonenim signifies. However it be, it is certain that these were Chanaanites. For so the Septuagint and our translator render it, who appropriate to them the common name of the Chanaanites, as if in that age they were called by excellence Chanaan and Chanaanites.
14. GO AND CALL UPON THE GODS WHICH YOU HAVE CHOSEN.—It is a sarcasm like that in Deut. xxxii: “Where are their gods, in whom they trusted? etc. Let them arise and help you, and protect you in your necessity.”
16. THEY CAST AWAY THE IDOLS.—Behold this is the sign of earnest sorrow and penance, to cast away their idols and vices: and therefore God soon had pity on them.
AND HE WAS GRIEVED FOR THEIR MISERIES.—In Hebrew katsar, that is, his soul was straitened in the labour of Israel. The Septuagint, oligopsychesen, that is, was diminished or contracted. This is said anthropopathically: for straitness does not befall God, but figuratively it signifies a great feeling of compassion in God. So God says, Jerem. xviii, 7: “I shall suddenly speak against a nation and against a kingdom, to root out and to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them. And I shall suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build and to plant it.” See St. Chrysostom.
17. NOW THE CHILDREN OF AMMON, CRYING OUT TOGETHER (that is, calling their own to war), PITCHED THEIR TENTS IN GALAAD,—For the country of Ammon is neighbouring to Galaad and the Galaadites, namely the Manassites, who therefore were the first to oppose themselves to them as they rushed in.
AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, BEING ASSEMBLED AGAINST THEM, CAMPED IN MASPHA.—There are two Maspha’s, one in the tribe of Gad, the other in the tribe of Manasses, which is meant here; both because the Ammonites had invaded the tribe of Manasses, which was their neighbour; and because Jephte, who was of Manasses, was set over them as leader, as we shall hear in the next chapter. Moreover Maspha in Hebrew is the same as a watch-tower, because it was in a high place, from which they watched for the coming of the Ammonites and other neighbouring enemies, that they might provide for themselves against it.
18. HE THAT SHALL FIRST BEGIN TO FIGHT AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF AMMON, SHALL BE THE LEADER OF THE PEOPLE OF GALAAD,—so indeed they then decreed in a hasty counsel, but not rightly enough. Hence a little after a sounder counsel came into their mind, of summoning Jephte, a warlike man, as we shall hear in the next chapter. So Abulensis.
Jephte, the ninth Judge of Israel, is appointed by the people. He first reasons with the king of Ammon, that he cease from invading Israel, but in vain: wherefore, verse 29, the Spirit of God coming upon him, he calls the Israelites to war, and makes a vow that, if he returns a victor, he will immolate to God the one who first comes out of his house to meet him; on his return as victor his daughter meets him: wherefore he sacrifices her to God, as one bound by his vow.
1. At that time Jephte the Galaadite was a most valiant man and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, who was born to Galaad. 2. And Galaad had a wife, of whom he had sons, who, after they were grown up, cast out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not be heir in the house of our father, because thou art born of a mother that is a stranger. 3. Then he fled and avoided them, and abode in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men, and robbers, and they followed him as their prince. 4. In those days the children of Ammon fought against Israel. 5. And when they pressed them hard, the ancients of Galaad went to take Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them. 6. And they said to him: Come and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon. 7. And he answered them: Are not you they who hated me, and cast me out of my father’s house, and now you are come to me constrained by necessity? 8. And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be the leader of all that dwell in Galaad. 9. And Jephte said to them: If you be come to me to fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my hands, shall I be your prince? 10. They answered him: The Lord, who heareth these things, he is himself the mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised. 11. Then Jephte went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha. 12. And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name: What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land? 13. And he answered them: Because Israel when he came up out of Egypt took away my land, from the borders of Arnon unto Jaboc and the Jordan; now therefore restore the same peaceably to me. 14. And by the same messengers Jephte sent word again, and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon: 15. Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon; 16. but when they came up out of Egypt, he walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Cades. 17. And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me to pass through thy land. And he would not condescend to his request. He sent also to the king of Moab, and he also refused to give passage. And he abode in Cades, 18. and went round by the side of the land of Edom and the land of Moab: and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and camped beyond the Arnon; and he would not enter the borders of Moab, for Arnon is the boundary of the land of Moab. 19. So Israel sent messengers to Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon, and they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy land to the river. 20. And he also despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude, went out against him to Jasa, and valiantly resisted. 21. And the Lord delivered him into the hands of Israel with all his army, and he smote him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite, the inhabitant of that country, 22. and all the coasts thereof from Arnon unto Jaboc, and from the wilderness unto the Jordan, 23. The Lord the God of Israel therefore destroyed the Amorrhite, while his people Israel fought against him, and wilt thou now possess his land? 24. Are not those things which Chamos thy god possesseth, due to thee by right? But what the Lord our God hath obtained by conquest shall be our possession; 25. unless thou art better than Balac the son of Sephor king of Moab; or canst prove that he had a quarrel with Israel, and fought against him, 26. when he dwelt in Hesebon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, or in all the cities beyond the Jordan, for three hundred years. Why have you made no attempt in so long a time to recover them? 27. Wherefore I do not wrong thee, but thou dealest ill with me, declaring unjust war against me. The Lord be judge of this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. 28. And the king of the children of Ammon would not hearken to the words of Jephte, which he sent by the messengers. 29. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad and Manasses, Maspha also of Galaad, and passing from thence to the children of Ammon, 30. he made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, 31. whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord. 32. And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 33. And he smote twenty cities from Aroer till you come to Mennith, and as far as Abel, which is planted with vineyards, with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel. 34. But Jephte returning into Maspha his house, his only begotten daughter met him with timbrels and dances; for he had no other children. 35. And when he saw her, he rent his garments, and said: Alas, my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived; for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing. 36. And she answered him: My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the revenge and victory over thy enemies is granted to thee. 37. And she said to her father: This only grant me which I beg: Let me go that I may bewail my virginity two months, going about the mountains with my companions. 38. And he answered her: Go. And he let her go for two months. And when she was gone with her friends and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains. 39. And the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man. From thence came the custom in Israel, and it hath been kept ever since, 40. that once a year the daughters of Israel assemble together to lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite, four days.