The New American Study Bible introduces him this way:
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah. Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves about Jephthah, and they went out with him. (Judges 11:1–3 NASB)
The Complete Jewish Study Bible, by David Stern, translated the same verses in this way:
Now Yiftach, a brave soldier from Gil’ad, was the son of a prostitute. His father, Gil’ad, had other sons by his wife; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Yiftach away and told him, “You will not inherit from our father, because you are another woman’s son.”
Then Yiftach fled from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tov, where he enlisted a gang of rowdies who would go out raiding with him. (Judges 11:1–3 Complete Jewish Study Bible)
The Complete Jewish Study Bible translation is a more dynamic translation of this verse, and that’s OK. But the New American Standard Bible translation is a more literal translation of the Hebrew.
After Jephthah was discarded by his brothers from his father’s house, he took up with a group of people that were the embodiment of what the book of Proverbs describes as “fools.” The Hebrew phrase is אֲנָשִׁים רֵיקִים ʾᵃnāšı̂m rêqı̂m (“empty men,” H375 and H7324) They are people who do nothing, accomplish nothing worthwhile to themselves or their community. They serve no purpose to society.
Yet, once Jephthah’s family are in real danger, they are so desperate for help that they ask Jephthah and his “gang of rowdies” to save them.
Serving Heaven, in spite of oneself
This seems like a paradox. There are some very unnerving and perplexing stories we read in the Bible, even about those who are upheld as “leaders” or “judges.”
The Scriptures tell us the stories of a lot of “worthless fellows” and even refers to some of them as an “anointed one” of Heaven — “messiah” with a small “M.” Examples are Nebuchadnezer of Babylon and Cyrus the Persian king.
But Heaven used them like He used Judas Iscariot, to serve a purpose for Heaven, but Heaven help the person who volunteers for such a role. You will sometimes see “worthless follows” as servants of Heaven, despite themselves. This is an example of the common Hebrew/rabbinical argument called kal v’khomer (“light and heavy.”
But we even find examples of these “worthless fellows” in our recent history. For example, sitting next to each other at the Yalta Conference in 1945 at the end of World War II were U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S.S.R. leader Josef Stalin.
Now, we know how evil Adolf Hitler was. Hitler and his ideology needed to be defeated and crushed unequivocally. But on a morality scale, Stalin was worse than Hitler. Stalin killed many more people — mostly his own people — than Hitler did.
Stalin had lived his entire life before and after his siding with the Allies in the war as a “worthless person.” Yet for that moment in history, Stalin accomplished something for the world that was worthwhile. Yet shortly after Yalta and the end of World War II, Stalin went back to being a “worthless person.”
The point is that you don’t want to be a worthless person, because then your service to Heaven will be limited and short lived.
Apostle Paul is an example of a person, who despite his lofty education credentials, had started out as a worthless fellow, going out and persecuting Yeshua’s followers, even going to foreign states to harass and persecute the church. Paul thought he was doing God’s work, but fortunately for Paul, Yeshua came to him on the road to Damascus and cleared up any misunderstandings Paul may have had about what he was doing.
Paul repented wholeheartedly of his crimes and every chance he got, he publicly spoke about his past life and apologized to Yeshua’s followers for his prior deeds. God turned the Apostle Paul from a worthless fool to a very upright man.
Nations come and go, but Israel is forever
You also see an interesting alliance between Abraham and the King of Sodom recorded in Genesis 14. A group of four kings/chieftains had decided to go to war with the King of Sodom and several other local kingdoms, kidnapping many people, including Abraham’s nephew Lot. When Abraham was informed by a survivor of the battle about what happened, Abraham joins this strange alliance for the sake of his nephew, not because he held the kings of Sodom and the other city states in any sort of esteem, but for the sake of his family. Once the war was over and Lot was safe, they went their separate ways, never meeting one another again.
The prophet Ezekiel also mentions that both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah were trading partners with the kingdom of Tyre to the north, in the area we would call the Phoenician empire (Ezekiel 26–27). Naval shipping routes all over the Mediterranean made Tyre very wealthy and prosperous and Tyre had great political influence because of this trade.
The problem is that the trade between these nations was not limited to material goods, Tyre also exported their abysmal culture and religious practices to Israel and Judah. So, rather than the people of Tyre going down to Jerusalem to seek after God, the people of Jerusalem instead went towards Tyre to import their practices, their gods, their sensibilities, and the people of Israel and Judah ended up getting swept away. The only reason the people of Israel and Judah still exist today is because of God’s promise to Abraham that He would bring the children of Abraham out of exile. The Phoenicians, on the other hand, are gone.
“The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.” (Proverbs 16:4 NASB)
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NASB)
The LORD has made everything for its purpose, including every person on earth. He uses all sorts of people to further advance His kingdom. We see what is going on geopolitically, that even if God’s workings are not all clear to us, He is using these things to bring about His kingdom. When the Messiah returns, we won’t be subjected to these political norms anymore. We will be in the Messianic Kingdom.
Jephthah and his daughter as Messianic figures
We also see a sliver of Messiah’s story in the story of Jephthah. He was cast out of his Father’s house by His father’s sons, to the land of “tov” which in Hebrew means “good.” Then He comes back, at their pleading, to save them. Messiah predicts this will happen when He says that He will not return to earth until His people, the Jewish people, say of Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
There is also a Messianic significants in the actions of Jephthah’s daughter. Her life story shares commonality with Isaac. Both Isaac and Jephthah’s daughter are only children.
Just as Isaac voluntarily submitted himself for sacrifice, Jephthah’s daughter also submitted herself willingly. She could have easily ran away from home, saying, “Hey, you made a promise to God that has nothing to do with me. How dare you do that? And put me in this position.”
But that is not how she responds when learning of her father’s vow, instead she voluntarily submits to it. She gives herself up just as Isaac did. And I don’t think that’s really emphasized enough. We talk about Jephthah’s and what he did. But what she did was amazing.
We see in the Torah there are two ways for something to be dedicated to the Lord. It can either be devoted in service to the Lord or devoted by destruction to the Lord.
The city of Jericho is an example of something being dedicated to the Lord by being completely destroyed. Every breathing thing in Jericho was destroyed, except Rahab and her family. Jericho was devoted to destruction, but it was also declared holy.
The idea is that something is given over to the Lord for Him to do as He wishes with it. Although Jephthah’s daughter was not sacrificed and burned on an altar, she was dedicated in holiness to the Temple, living the rest of her life in service to God. Her family line was cut off, destroyed and sacrificed to God. She denied herself the opportunity of marriage, family and future generations to serve God and His people for the rest of her life. Yet, her life was worthwhile. The fact we even know of her, that her story was recorded in the Torah is an eternal testimony of her.
Jephthah’s vow of his daughter isn’t the only time that a vow is performed by a parent on behalf of a child. The rite of circumcison of a newborn son is an important example of the parents making a vow for their son, whether the son wants to continue on with that or not. The parents are making a commitment to say we will move forward with this, we are pledging to launch this child, like an arrow in the quiver towards the right direction.
Jephthah pointed his daughter like an arrow towards Heaven, sending her in the right direction.
When Heaven makes promises to us, we take them seriously and because we want to trust in God’s oaths and promises to us. We should be very careful to follow through on our promises just as we expect God to follow through for us. The servant is not equal to his master but should strive to follow his master’s example.
Summary: Tammy