Commentaria in Judices
1. AT THAT TIME JEPHTE THE GALAADITE (and therefore of the tribe of Manasses, not of Gad, as Cajetan would have it. For the Manassites are everywhere called Galaadites, not Gadites, although the latter also occupied part of the region of Galaad) A MOST VALIANT MAN.—In Hebrew gibbor chail, that is, a man of virtue, or strength, or vigour.
THE SON OF A WOMAN THAT WAS A HARLOT,—not one publicly exposed, but a private concubine. The Hebrew is zonah, a word which signifies both a harlot, as the Septuagint and our translator render it, and an innkeeper, as the Chaldee renders it here. Jephte was therefore a bastard, such as are now excluded by law from rule, as also from the priesthood, on account of infamy and the often less honourable manners that come of their being carelessly brought up. But Jephte removed all this by his fortitude and virtue, wherefore, God dispensing in the Law, Deut. xxiii, 2, which ordains that a mamzer, that is a bastard, be not admitted into the Church of God to the rights of the people of Israel, Jephte was admitted and made leader of the people. Plutarch, Athenaeus and Serarius here recount like examples of bastards raised to rule.
WHO WAS BORN TO GALAAD.—The father of Jephte, therefore, was called Galaad. So the Septuagint, and it is plain from the next verse.
2. THEY 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,—that is, who was of another tribe, namely different from his own, says Matthaeus Galenus, Chancellor of Douai, writing on chap. xi to the Hebrews. For no one, he says, could honourably take a wife not of his own tribe: if anyone, however, enticed by beauty, had attempted it, the woman was called zonah. Hence the Septuagint call her hetairan, that is, a friend; but when the husband was dead, she returned without dowry and inheritance to her own tribe; a son, however, if one had been born, received his inheritance in the father’s tribe, which the brothers of Jephte now denied, as he himself reproaches them, verse 7, and they would not have dared to open their mouths if he had been born of a harlot. So Galenus. But it is false that Israelite women could not marry in another tribe without mark and infamy. For the princes of Juda often married daughters of priests of the tribe of Levi, and counted it an honour, as Aaron married Elizabeth, daughter of Aminadab, prince of the tribe of Juda, Exod. vi, 23. And Zachary married Elizabeth, kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin, who was of the tribe of Juda, Luke i.
Moreover “another woman” is not understood here as one who is of another tribe, but as one other than the lawful wife, that is, a harlot and concubine, whom the Septuagint honourably call hetairan, as we call a friend: or one who is the wife of another man, and therefore an adulteress, such as Josephus insinuates the mother of Jephte was.
THEY CAST HIM OUT,—unjustly; for to a bastard maintenance is due from the father and the house by common law, though not inheritance, as Sylvester and other Doctors of Cases teach.
3. HE DWELT IN THE LAND OF TOB,—which was situated in the land of Galaad, says Josephus and Adrichomius. Serarius thinks it is Tubin, of which 1 Machab. v, 13. Moreover “Tob” signifies good; truly this land was to Jephte eminently good, that is, the best, because it kindly received and fed him in his flight.
AND THERE WERE GATHERED TO HIM NEEDY MEN AND ROBBERS.—“Robbers” is not in the Hebrew, Greek and Chaldee, wherefore it seems to have crept into the text from the margin, put in by someone wishing to explain “needy”; for needy soldiers often live by plunder and robbery. Now such plunderings are just if the plunder is taken from an enemy in a just war; unjust if from friends, or from enemies in an unjust war. Wherefore these robbers, over whom Jephte presided, were soldiers and freebooters, who perhaps before had unjustly seized others’ goods; but after they followed Jephte, they made only just spoils, namely from the Ammonites and Philistines, as did those who followed David when he fled from Saul, 1 Kings xxii, 2.
For among the ancients latro was the same as soldier, who was called latro as if from latus, side, because he adhered to the side of the Leader and guarded him; or from lying hid, because he rushed secretly and from ambush to plunder. So Varro, Festus, Nonius, Marcellus and others.
8. AND BE THE LEADER OF ALL THAT DWELL IN GALAAD.—But after the victory over the Ammonites the other tribes also accepted Jephte as their leader.
11. AND JEPHTE SPOKE ALL HIS WORDS BEFORE THE LORD IN MASPHA.—First, “before,” that is, publicly, in the assembly and in the hearing of the people, in the midst of whom God was held to be, says Vatablus. Secondly, “before the Lord,” that is, calling God to witness of the pact which he entered with the legates concerning the leadership. So Abulensis. Thirdly, “before the Lord,” that is, before the Pontiff, clothed with the Ephod and the Rational, in which were the Urim and Thummim; for he represented God, and consulting him received oracles for the prince. Fourthly, “before the Lord,” that is, before the altar, which, as it seems, they erected there to sanction this covenant solemnly. Moreover the words which Jephte spoke there were a promise, by which he promised the legates that he would faithfully and strenuously conduct the people’s war, and they in turn promised that they would constantly follow his command and orders as their Leader. And for this he invoked God, both as witness and as help, that he might favour this his command and the war, as Josue, Judas Machabaeus, Constantine, Theodosius and other Leaders did, who therefore, gaining victory by God’s help, triumphed over their enemies.
13. BECAUSE ISRAEL, WHEN HE CAME UP OUT OF EGYPT, TOOK AWAY MY LAND, FROM THE BORDERS OF ARNON UNTO JABOC AND THE JORDAN.—The case is this: Sehon the king had seized some cities of Moab and Ammon in war; but Moses and the Hebrews slew king Sehon, and seized all that was his. The king of Ammon now complains, therefore, of the injury done to him, and demands and claims back his land seized by Sehon and taken by the Hebrews, who wrested it from Sehon in war.
TOOK AWAY (namely unjustly, by force and unjust war) MY LAND;—for Sehon king of the Amorrhites unjustly invaded and seized this; but you, O Hebrews, invading and killing Sehon, appropriated to yourselves all that he held, as justly so as unjustly, excluding me, who am the first and just heir, to whom you ought therefore to have restored them, not claimed them for yourselves. The history is told in Num. xxi, 25 and following, and although there mention is made only of the land of the Moabites subdued by Sehon and, he being killed, seized by the Jews; yet it is clear from this place that a part of the Ammonite land also was then seized by them. Or certainly it must be said with Lyranus, Cajetan, Dionysius and others that the king of the Moabites and Ammonites was the same, either formerly or then: for the Moabites were joined with the Ammonites, as begotten by Lot of two brothers Moab and Ammon, Gen. xix. The king of Ammon therefore acts for the Moabites, either as subjects or as allies and confederates, who through him claim back their right from the Hebrews.