Commentaria in Judices
Chapter 12
Jephte slays the Ephraimites for their rebellion and insult. Soon, verse 7, in the sixth year of his rule he dies, and the tenth Judge Abesan succeeds him, and after him the eleventh, Ahialon, on whose death the twelfth, Abdon, was put in his place.
1. And behold there arose a sedition in Ephraim. For passing toward the north, they said to Jephte: Why wouldst thou not call us when thou wentest to fight against the children of Ammon, that we might go with thee? Therefore we will burn thy house. 2. And he answered them: I and my people had a great contest with the children of Ammon; and I called you, and you would not help me. 3. Which when I saw, I put my life in my hands, and passed over to the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hands. What have I deserved that you rise up against me to fight? 4. Then calling to him all the men of Galaad, he fought against Ephraim; and the men of Galaad defeated Ephraim, because he had said: Galaad is a fugitive of Ephraim, and dwelleth in the midst of Ephraim and Manasses. 5. And the Galaadites took the fords of the Jordan, by which Ephraim was to return. And when any of the number of Ephraim came thither fleeing, and said: I beseech you let me pass; the Galaadites said to him: Art thou not an Ephrathite? and if he said: I am not, 6. they asked him: Say then Scibboleth, which is interpreted An ear of corn. But he answered: Sibboleth, not being able to express the ear of corn by the same letter. And presently, being taken, they killed him in the very passage of the Jordan. And there fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. 7. And Jephte the Galaadite judged Israel six years, and he died, and was buried in his city Galaad. 8. After him Abesan of Bethlehem judged Israel, 9. who had thirty sons and as many daughters, whom he sent out, giving them to husbands, and took wives for his sons of the same number, bringing them into his house. And he judged Israel seven years, 10. and he died, and was buried in Bethlehem. 11. After him Ahialon a Zabulonite judged Israel ten years; 12. and he died, and was buried in Zabulon. 13. After him Abdon, the son of Illel, a Pharathonite, judged Israel, 14. who had forty sons, and of them thirty grandsons, riding upon seventy ass colts, and he judged Israel eight years; 15. and he died, and was buried in Pharathon in the land of Ephraim in the mount of Amalec.
1. AND BEHOLD THERE AROSE A SEDITION IN EPHRAIM,—like that in which the same people murmured for the same cause against Gedeon, chap. viii, verse 1. For the Ephraimites or Ephrathites were arrogant men, and proudly set themselves above the Manassites (such as Jephte was), as I said chap. viii, verse 1. FOR PASSING (the Jordan) TOWARD THE NORTH, THEY SAID TO JEPHTE.—The Ephraimites with half the tribe of Manasses dwelt on this side of the Jordan: here therefore they pass the Jordan to the other half of the tribe of Manasses dwelling toward the north, namely toward mount Libanus and Hermon, to remonstrate with Jephte, who lived there in Maspha, because he had not called them to partnership in the war.
For the Hebrew and the Septuagint add with thee or upon thee.
3. I PUT MY LIFE IN MY HANDS,—that is, exposed my life to danger and hazard in a doubtful fight against the Ammonites, as if to say: I, when you were called to the hazard of war but declined the danger, undertook it alone for you, and as victor drove it off from you and all Israel. You ought therefore not to clamour against me, but to give thanks. So Job says, chap. xiii, verse 14: “I take my flesh in my teeth, and carry my soul in my hands.” And David: “My soul is continually in my hands,” Ps. cxviii, 109. “And I put my life in my hand,” 1 Kings xix, 5. For he who does not store away gold, oil, wine or any like precious thing to keep it, but carries it in his hand, exposes it to the certain danger of its being snatched from him, or falling to the ground and being spilled.
4. GALAAD IS A FUGITIVE OF EPHRAIM, AND DWELLETH IN THE MIDST OF EPHRAIM AND MANASSES.—This is the force and meaning of this insult, as if to say: Thou, O Jephte, and thy Manassites dwelling beyond the Jordan in the Galaadite country are ignoble and vile men, because, cast out of thy father’s house as a bastard, thou fleddest into Galaad, and thou and thy Manassites are excluded from the common dwelling of the tribe of Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasses, who abide on this side of the Jordan with all the other tribes of Israel: wherefore you seem by them as it were expelled and cast off as fugitives, thrust back into that extremity and corner of the Galaaditic land beyond the Jordan, as unworthy to dwell with the other tribes in the promised land on this side of the Jordan, as if to say: You are mere and wretched Galaadites; you are the refuse of Israel; you are the dregs of Ephraim and of Manasses dwelling on this side of the Jordan: wherefore, though you boast that you dwell in the midst of these two most noble tribes and belong to them, because you dwell next to them, yet in truth you are their castaways, because you dwell not among them, but as fugitives expelled by them in remote Galaad, as in the farthest bound of the promised land, and such you are held and esteemed by the Ephraimites and the other Manassites on this side of the Jordan. Secondly, properly: “Galaad is a fugitive of Ephraim,” as if to say: The Galaadites fled from the villages to their cities when we Ephraimites suddenly and unexpectedly invaded and ravaged Galaad. They are therefore fugitives, and neither can nor dare resist us. So they said proudly. But soon the Galaadites, gathering their strength, showed that they were not fugitives, but struck down the Ephraimites themselves and forced them to flee. See here the petulance and the damage of an intemperate tongue. For on account of this word and insult forty-two thousand of Ephraim were slain by Jephte, verse 6.
5. ART THOU NOT AN EPHRATHITE?—that is, sprung from the tribe of Ephraim, which raised this quarrel and fight against us.
6. SAY THEN SCIBBOLETH, etc., BUT HE ANSWERED SIBBOLETH.—The Galaadites, pursuing the fleeing Ephrathite enemies, when these denied that they were Ephrathites, lest they be slain by them, tested the truth by the pronunciation of the word Scibboleth. For the Ephrathites could not pronounce Scibboleth with the aspirate, but instead of it said Sibboleth gently and as it were lisping; not being able to pronounce the letter schin, but saying sin in its place, and thence they were recognised to be Ephrathites and enemies, and therefore were slain. In a quite similar way, in the pronunciation of the same aspiration, the Flemings test whether one is a Frenchman or not: Pronounce, they say, acht en tachtentich (that is, 88). For the French, not being able to utter the aspiration ch, say softly act en tactentic, and thence are known to be French.
WHICH IS INTERPRETED AN EAR OF CORN.—Scibboleth can also be rendered the flow of a river, a channel or an inundation, as Pagninus, Vatablus and others render it, and that is apt to the place. For this examination of the Ephrathites was held at the fords and flow of the Jordan, as though from the present circumstance this name rather than others was taken as a mark and token of the nation and people.
The Septuagint render: Say now ear of corn the watchword, that is, pronounce the watchword, namely the word Scibboleth, that is, ear of corn. For soldiers have their watchword by night, by which they know whether one is a friend or an enemy; for friends know it, enemies are ignorant of it.
7. BURIED IN HIS CITY GALAAD,—that is, verse 7, in Maspha, which was a city of the Galaaditic region, is plain from the Hebrew; for in it Galaad is in the genitive case. So Serarius and others.
8. ABESAN OF BETHLEHEM.—Maldonatus, on chap. ii, verse 1 of Matthew, takes Bethlehem as that which was in the tribe of Zabulon; and therefore thinks Abesan was a Zabulonite: but others commonly take the Bethlehem which is in the tribe of Juda, and assert that Abesan was sprung from it. Moreover the Rabbis conjecture that Abesan is Booz, the husband of Ruth; but they do not prove it, though the sequence of times nearly agrees.
11. AFTER HIM AHIALON.—The Septuagint, Aelom.
It is strange that he is omitted by Eusebius in the Chronicle. In the time of Ahialon Troy was overthrown by the Greeks, Priam being killed, Aeneas fled into Latium, and reigned there; whereas before him there had reigned in the same place Janus, Saturn, Picus, Faunus and Latinus for 150 years. Ascanius succeeded Aeneas, and after him others, from whom at last Romulus and Remus, descended, founded Rome about the time of Achaz king of Juda. Then also occurred the wanderings of Ulysses, the deeds of Pylades and Orestes and the other Trojan and Greek princes, who flourished after the destruction of Troy, or are feigned by the Poets to have flourished. So Eusebius, Bellarmine, Salian, Tornielli and others in the Chronicle.
13. ABDON THE SON OF ILLEL A PHARATHONITE.—It is plain that Abdon was of the tribe of Ephraim; for in this was Pharathon, as is plain from verse 15, and from Josephus, book XIII of the Antiquities, who adds that his burial was splendid.
15. IN THE MOUNT OF AMALEC.—This mount, says Abulensis, was named Amalec, either from a man whose proper name was Amalec, whose mount this was, as Dionysius would have it, or because it once belonged to the Amalecites.