Bible Commentaries
Judges 9

Verses 1-15

XXIX

THE STORY OF ABIMELECH, THE USURPER, AND OF JEPHTHAH

Judges 9-12

1. Who was Abimelech, and was he one of Israel’s judges sent out by the Lord?

Ans. – Abimelech was the natural son of Gideon, not the legal son, and evidently a godless case. He was not sent of the Lord to be a judge. Whatever rule he obtained he obtained by murder, unsurpation, and conspiracy. So we don’t count him at all in the list of the judges, but his history only as an episode in the period of the judges.

2. How was his usurpation effected?

Ans. – By conspiracy with the city of Shechem, and by the murder and assassination of all his father’s legal children except one, the youngest, Jotham, who escaped.

3. Analyze the sin of Abimelech and Shechem.

Ans. – (1) The sin consisted in the attempt to establish a monarchy while God was the ruler of the theocracy. (2) It consisted of murder in order that no competition might arise between the real, legal children of their great leader, Gideon.

4. Through whom and how came a protest against the sin?

Ans. – The protest came from Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon. He took his position on top of Mount Gerizirn, and from the top of that mountain all the valley could hear him and all on the highest mountains, so he occupied a high pulpit. He stated his case in the form of a parable, or in the strictest sense of fable. He said that the trees of the field called upon the fig tree to be their king, and it had better things to attend to than to be king; they called on the olive tree, and the olive tree had better things to do than to be king; so finally they applied to the bramble, and it agreed that it would be king if they would rest under its shadow. Now the briar doesn’t make much of a shadow, but they agreed to it.

5. Was Jotham’s illustration a fable or a parable, and what the distinction between them?

Ans. – Parable is a broader word and includes fable. A fable is a parable of this kind: It attributes intelligent action to either inanimate creation or brute creation. Numerous cases you have of them in Aesop’s Fables. But a parable supposes real people and presents them acting as one would naturally do under the circumstances. But inasmuch as a parable etymologically means, according to the strict Greek word parabola, the putting of one thing down against another for the purpose of contrast, therefore a fable may come within the definition of a parable.

6. What fable of Aesop’s somewhat similar?

Ans. – The fable of the frogs who implored Jupiter to send them a king. He dropped a log into the pond and it made a great splash and ripples but later when they found that they could jump upon that log they had no regard for their king and implored Jupiter to send another. Whereupon Jupiter sent a long-necked stork, or crane. And he gobbled up quite a number of his subjects every morning and they much regretted swapping King Log for King Stork.

7. What are the great lessons of Jotham’s fable?

(1) The best and most ambitious men are not ambitious to rule over people. See our Lord’s lesson in the Gospel: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; it shall not be so with you." There is something greater than to be king and whoever ministers to others is greater than any king that ever sat on the throne.

(2) The second lesson of the fable is that when the ambitious in their selfishness seek to rule and the people are gullible enough to give them rule, then it means mutual destruction both to the self-seeking ambitious one and the gullible people who put him in power.

8. How did Jotham apply his fable?

Ans. – In this way: "Now if you have done the right thing to Gideon in the murder of his children and in the election of this self-seeking assassin, then have joy in him and let him have joy in you; but if you are wrong in that may the fire come out of him that will burn you up and may a fire come out of you that will burn him up."

9. Cite proof that the fable was inspired.

Ans. – The proof is found at the close of this lesson where it is said, "according to the word of Jotham," and that is exactly what happened. The first time a row came up between him and the people he wiped them off the face of the map, and soon after a remnant in fighting against him killed him; a woman dropped a millstone down on his bead. What an inglorious death! So he perished and they perished, and the record says that it was done according to the word of Jotham.

10. What use does Dr. Broadus make of Jotham in his History of Preaching?

Ans. – In citing cases of real pulpit eloquence he mentions Jotham and his high pulpit he stood on, his use of illustrations and his sensational sermon, and then that having created a sensation, he ran away from it. That is about the substance, but you had better read what Dr. Broadus says in his History of Preaching.

11. What Old Testament parables precede Jotham’s fable?

Ans. – None; for another fable, see 2 Kings 14:9-14.

12. Cite the names and tribes of the next two judges after Gideon and their respective periods of judging.

Ans. – Tolar of the tribe of Issachar, who judged twenty-three years, and Jair of the tribe of Manasseh, who judged twenty-two years.

13. After Tolar and Jair how did Israel increase its idolatries and what the deities?

Ans. – Read 10:6. Here is what he says: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth [both of these are plural], and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon [Sidon is a part of Phoenicia], and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines." They took in more gods this time than ever before.

14. Find the names of the gods of the Philistines, of Ammon, of Moab, and of Sidon in addition to Baalim and Ashtaroth.

Ans. – One god of the Philistines was Dagon; another was Baal-zebub; Milcom, or Moloch of Ammon; Chemosh of Moab; Gerakles and Melkar of Phoenicia.

15. What evidence of their repentance when trouble came?

Ans. – (1) The confession of sin Judges 10:10-15. (2) Putting themselves in God’s hands to be punished at his will, Judges 10:15. (3) Putting away the strange gods. That is good proof of repentance.

We now come to consider the case of JEPHTHAH

16. Cite the story of Jephthah up to the call of the people to make him leader. Where is Tob, what his life there and what the similarity with the case of Abimelech?

Ans. – Jephthah, as I have stated, was the son of Gilead, by a harlot, and his brethren or his half-brothers, the legal children of Gilead, denied him the right to any part of the inheritance, and the city of Shechem coincided with them. So he had to leave, and he retired to a great rich country in Syria. The name of the place was Tob, and there, being a valorous man, he gathered about him a company of men, pretty lawless fellows; some of them, regular free-lances. The similarity of his case and Abimelech’s is that he and Abimelech were both natural sons.

17. Considering Genesis 21:10, the case of Hagar; the case of Tamar, Genesis 38:12-26; and Deuteronomy 21:15-17, was it lawful to deny Jephthah a part of his father’s inheritance, and if so wherein does this case differ from others cited?

Ans. – Hagar was really the wife under the law and Tamar’s action was strictly within the law, though Judah did not suppose it at the time. And in the case cited in Deuteronomy there were the children of two wives but they were both wives. So none of them applies to this case. Jephthah was the son of a harlot born utterly out of wedlock, and therefore, it was lawful to deprive him of any inheritance, but it was a mean thing to do.

18. What condition did Jephthah exact of Gilead before he would accept their appeal and how did he certify it?

Ans. – He made them enter into a claim covenant at Mizpah that if he came in their extremity and delivered them from this bondage that had come upon them, then he was to be their prince, and he had the word spoken before the Lord at Mizpah. The student of history will remember how Rome pleaded with Coriolanus, whom she expelled, not to destroy Rome, and sent his mother to beg him not to do it. He said, "Mother, you have saved Rome but you have lost your son."

19. State Jephthah’s negotiation with Ammon, and its results.

Ans. – He sent a very able statement to the king of Ammon, who was leading this invasion of Israel, and he put the case this way: "We obtained this territory 300 years ago under Moses; God put it into our hands. Why have you been silent 300 years? We will not surrender what God has put into our hands and which we have held for that long." They disregarded his negotiation.

20. What the first proof that Jehovah had any part in the leadership of Jephthah?

Ans. – Now, heretofore everything that is said in the record shows that it was the plan of the people to go and stand for Jephthah as leader, and the first sign is in Judges 11:29, showing that after he took the position of leader the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.

21. What the vow of Jephthah and wherein its rashness?

Ans. – When they refused to negotiate, he vowed if God would give him the victory over them that whoever was the first to come out of his house to meet him on his return from battle) he would offer as a burnt offering to Jehovah. The rashness of it was, as all the context goes to show, that he meant persons and Jehovah’s law was against offering people as burnt offerings.

22. State two theories of what became of Jephthah’s daughter, which the older, which best supported by the context and history, and if you say the first, how, then, did the second originate?

Ans. – The first theory is that Jephthah said he would offer the one meeting him as a burnt offering and the text shows that just what he vowed, that he did unequivocally. That theory held the fort until 1,200 years after Christ, i.e., from Jephthah’s time until 1,200 years after Christ; all commentaries, Jewish and Christian, stated that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering to Jehovah, but about 1,200 years after Christ a Jewish rabbi questioned it and then a few of the sentimental Christians, among them Grotius, the distinguished theologian of Holland, followed by Hengstenberg, a German, and a few English people, Adam Clarke for one, and their theory was that Jephthah vowed to the Lord that if something that could be offered as a burnt offering met him it should be burned, but if it were not it was still to be consecrated to God, and what took place was not the death on the altar of sacrifice, but the daughter was shut up to perpetual virginity. The overwhelming majority of the commentaries, and men who have respect for what the Word says, hold to the first theory, but if you want to see both theories stated and your question demands that, you look in Appendix 4 to the "Cambridge Bible," Book of Judges. Now, that second theory being more and more in fashion was originated by early nunneries, women taking the vow of perpetual virginity for Christian service, and yet the majority of the Catholics do not believe that. They believe that she was put up as a burnt offering.

23. Why, in your judgment, did not Jephthah appeal to Leviticus 27:2-8, for commutation of his vow? That is, if one made a vow, a scale of compensation was provided and by paying that compensation in money he could be released from the vow. The question now is why did not Jephthah appeal to the Levitical law?

Ans. – A great many people say that Jephthah was ignorant of this law, but that history took place at Mizpah where the high priest lived, and the high priest knew of that law if Jephthah didn’t. He did not appeal to that because the Levitical law did not apply as it does to other kinds of vows.

24. From the context was the vow inspired?

Ans. – Judges 11:29-30, shows that the Spirit of the Lord rested on him, and inasmuch as in Hebrews 11:32, Jephthah is commended as one of the heroes of faith, my answer is that the vow was not inspired and an entirely new subject on the vow question was introduced after the statement that the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. Hebrews 11:32 has nothing to do with it from the fact that a man may have faith and do many mean things and wrong things, as David did.

25. Is it better to break a vow that involves sin than to keep it?

Ans. – Before you answer, compare Psalms 15:4, Ecclesiastes 5:4, with Matthew 14:6-11, where Herod vowed with an oath that he would give the dancing girl anything she asked for, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Take the three passages and make out your answer. Let those first two cases refer to cases that are not sin. I heard a man once swear that he would eat the devil in flames and I have always excused him from eating the devil particularly as hot as that.

26. What proverb of English classics applies to Jephthah’s vow?

Ans. – This proverb, "This promise is better in the breach than in the observance of it."

27. Cite the case of Jephthah’s contention with Ephraim, and what use has been made of "Shibboleth"?

Ans. – Ephraim as usual (you know, I quoted the prophet who said that Ephraim is a cake not turned), when Jephthah gained that victory, drew out his army and demanded why he did not call on him. Jephthah did not give him a soft answer. He said, "I did call on you and you refused to come and when you refused I wrought the deliverance, and now if you want to fight let us fight." And he gave him a good beating. In other words, when he got through the cake was cooked on both sides. Now, this "Shibboleth," that was the word that the enemy had to pronounce. They could not pronounce the sh; they said Sibboleth, and as they were running away and Jephthah’s men found them, they were asked to say "Shibboleth," and if they said "Sibboleth," they were known to be the enemy and were killed right there. It has become since that day popular with those who think that others are requiring too hard doctrines. They say, "Well, I don’t pretend to be able to pronounce ’Shibboleth,’ but you need not want to kill me just because I can’t sound every letter just like you."

28. What three judges succeeded Jephthah, from what tribes, and the notes of time?

Ans. – That is expressed in two or three verses, as follows: Ibzan of the tribe of Zebulon, judged seven years; Elon of the tribe of Zebulon, judged ten years; Abdon of the tribe of Ephraim, judged eight years.