Jephthah
Also called Jephthae
Mentioned 1186 BC to AD 64 traditional (Jones)
Whom God sets free, or the breaker through, a “mighty man of valour” who delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:1-33), and judged Israel six years (12:7). He has been described as “a wild, daring, Gilead mountaineer, a sort of warrior Elijah.” After forty-five years of comparative quiet Israel again apostatized, and in “process of time the children of Ammon made war against Israel” (11:5).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897).
- Mentioned in the era of Exile and return, 586–5 BC.
- Named in the same verses as Ephraim, Gideon, Samuel, Barak, Bedan, David, Gilead, and Gilead.
Computed from the data. Years are traditional (Jones).
Family
Two generations up and the children. Gold lines join partners; grey lines run from parent to child; a dotted line marks a parent named in the text but not by descent.
The tree is wider than the screen; scroll it sideways.
Stories
1 event in which Jephthah takes part, in order of the traditional chronology. Years are traditional (Jones).
- 1151 BCDeliverance by JephthahJudg 11:1–12:7
Places
Places named in the same verses as Jephthah, with the number of verses they share; a larger marker means more. Locations follow OpenBible.info, which grades each identification. A dashed ring on the map marks a region, river, or mountain rather than a town.
Timeline
The strip runs from Creation to AD 100; the shaded part, 1498 BC to AD 100, is drawn below at a larger scale around these mentions, with 6 contemporaries. Years are traditional (Jones), shown as recorded, not as settled fact.
Mentions
26 tagged verses in 3 books. Select a book to read its verses.
The name in each translation
| Text | Occurrences of each name |
|---|---|
| BSB | Jephthah 28Jephthae 0 |
| KJV | Jephthah 29Jephthae 1 |
| ASV | Jephthah 30Jephthae 0 |
Whole-word, case-sensitive count of the name string (regex \bName\b, so possessives like "Abraham's" count) across the whole Bible text of each translation; this counts the string, not the person, so other people who share the name are included and pronoun references are not. How Begat counts
Every verse
All 26 tagged verses, by book, in canonical order. The Berean Standard Bible is shown; switch to the King James or American Standard Version.
Judges24 verses
- 11:1
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
- 11:2
And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”
- 11:3
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
- 11:5
and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
- 11:6
“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”
- 11:7
Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
- 11:8
They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.”
- 11:9
But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?”
- 11:10
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”
- 11:11
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.
- 11:12
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?”
- 11:13
The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”
- 11:14
Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites
- 11:15
to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.
- 11:28
But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.
- 11:29
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
- 11:30
Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand,
- 11:32
So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hand.
- 11:34
And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
- 11:40
that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
- 12:1
Then the men of Ephraim assembled and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you inside!”
- 12:2
But Jephthah replied, “My people and I had a serious conflict with the Ammonites, and when I called, you did not save me out of their hands.
- 12:4
Jephthah then gathered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim, living in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.”
- 12:7
Jephthah judged Israel six years, and when he died, he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
1 Samuel1 verse
- 12:11
So the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.
Hebrews1 verse
- 11:32
And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
The full entry, public domain, as printed in 1897.
Whom God sets free, or the breaker through, a “mighty man of valour” who delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:1-33), and judged Israel six years (12:7). He has been described as “a wild, daring, Gilead mountaineer, a sort of warrior Elijah.” After forty-five years of comparative quiet Israel again apostatized, and in “process of time the children of Ammon made war against Israel” (11:5). In their distress the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob, to which he had fled when driven out wrongfully by his brothers from his father’s inheritance (2), and the people made him their head and captain. The “elders of Gilead” in their extremity summoned him to their aid, and he at once undertook the conduct of the war against Ammon. Twice he sent an embassy to the king of Ammon, but in vain. War was inevitable. The people obeyed his summons, and “the spirit of the Lord came upon him.” Before engaging in war he vowed that if successful he would offer as a “burnt-offering” whatever would come out of the door of his house first to meet him on his return. The defeat of the Ammonites was complete. “He smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards [Heb. ‘Abel Keramim], with a very great slaughter” (Judg. 11:33). The men of Ephraim regarded themselves as insulted in not having been called by Jephthah to go with him to war against Ammon. This led to a war between the men of Gilead and Ephraim (12:4), in which many of the Ephraimites perished. “Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead” (7).