JEPH'THAH (Heb. riphaf,h, he. i.e. Yah weh. opens, perhaps in the sense of 'grants victory'). A Gileadite, one of the judges of Israel. The story of his career. according to Judo•es xi.-xii.. is as follows: Ile was a bastard. and. being driven from home by his brothers. became the leader of a band of brigands. When the Ammonites oppressed Israel, the aileaditos appealed to deplithah for aid. Ile rebuked them for coining to him only because in distress, but agreed to help them on condition that, if success ful. he should remain their leader. Aecording he went forth to battle against the Ammonites. first vowino. to I tier to Yahweh in ease of suceesq whatever should come to meet him from the door of his house on his return. He overcame the Ammonites. routing them entirely. On his return home his daughter, his only child. came forth out of the house, the first one to meet him. Being told of her father's vow she agreed to its fulfillment. and Jephtliall "did with her according to his vow" (Judges xi. 39). Iler fate was afterwards bewailed by the daughters of Israel four days every year lib. 39-40). The Ephraimites picked a quarrel with Jephthall, because lie had not asked them to join in the war against the Am monites (cf. Jud. viii. 1). A combat ensued and Jephthah was victorious. The story goes that, with his Gileadite forces, he held the fords against the Ephraimites and put to death every fugitive who betrayed his Ephraimitic origin by his inability to pronounce his sh sound, saying 'sibboleth' for 'shibboleth.' Jephtbah's judgeship lasted for six years, and on his death he was buried in Gilead.
The story of Jephthah, when critically studied, re\eals a curious mixture of myth and uncertain tradition. By general agreement among critics, the interview between Jephthah and the King of the Ammonites (Judges xi. 12-28) is regarded as
unhistorical, for the sufficient reason that the section in question refers to the Moabites. In the above account of Jephthah, therefore, no mention has been made of it. But there are other prob lems more difficult to solve. The account of the quarrel of the Ephraimites with Jephthah is so similar to an incident in the career of Gideon (Judges viii. 1-3) that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the incident has nothing to do with Jephthah. The authenticity of the Shib boleth incident also has been questioned by the critics. The incident with .Jephthah's daughter rests presumably upon some actual occurrence of child-sacrifice; but in the form in which it is told is an attempt to account for a four days' festival celebrated annually in Gilead and elsewhere in Palestine. a feature of which was weeping by women. This festival is, without much question. that of Tammuz (q.v.)—the young god who is slain by a cruel goddess. and for whom the women (as the official mourners in the Orient, ancient and modern) sing dirges. This festival, we know from Ezekiel (viii. 14). was observed by Hebrews till a comparatively late date. There remains Jephthah's conflict with the Ammonites: and since this account contains an incident, as above pointed out, which confuses Moabites and Ammonites, it is clear that the later Hebrew writers did not have any very definite knowledge of Jephthah's career. His name remained in the memory of his people as a liberator from oppression by an enemy. but who the enemy was—whether Moab ites or Ammonites—appears to have been for gotten. Consult the commentaries on Judges by Moore and Budde, and the Hebrew histories of Stade, Outhe, Wellhausen, Kittel, etc.