Judges 12

Life and literature are filled with the “Cinderella legend,” stories about rejected people who were eventually “discovered” and elevated to places of honor and authority. Horatio Alger wrote over 100 boys’ novels that focused on the “rags-to-riches” theme, and he became one of the most influential American writers of the last half of the nineteenth century. Whether it’s Abraham Lincoln going “from log cabin to White House” or Joseph from the prison to the throne of Egypt, the story of the successful “underdog” is one that will always be popular. We like to see losers become winners.

The account of Jephthah, the main character in these chapters, is that kind of a story, except that it doesn’t end with the hero living “happily ever after.” After Jephthah’s great victory over the Ammonites and Philistines, he experienced anything but happiness, and the narrative ends on a tragic note. The story can be divided into four scenes.

Accusation (v. 1). The leaders of the tribe of Ephraim expressed to Jephthah the same pride and anger they had shown to Gideon (8:1). As before, they wanted to share the glory of the victory, but they hadn’t been too eager to risk their lives in the battle. The men of Ephraim were so angry that they threatened to burn Jephthah’s house down. They had absolutely no respect for the new ruler of the Transjordanic tribes.

Explanation (vv. 2–3). Gideon had pacified the Ephraimites with flattery, but Jephthah took a more direct approach. To begin with, he reminded them that his first concern was to defeat the Ammonites, not to please his neighbors. Second, during the eighteen years Ammon had oppressed the people of Gilead, nobody from Ephraim had offered to come to their rescue. Third, Jephthah had issued a call for the tribes to assist him in his attack on the enemy, but Ephraim hadn’t responded. Without their help, the Lord gave Jephthah and his army victory, so the proud Ephraimites (who didn’t like being left out) had nothing to complain about.

Confrontation (vv. 4–7). Perhaps Jephthah should have practiced Proverbs 15: and 17: and avoided a war, but then, maybe it was time somebody called Ephraim’s bluff and taught them a lesson. The men of Ephraim resorted to namecalling and taunted the Gileadites by calling them “renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh” (Judg. 12: niv). Actually, the tribes east of the Jordan River—Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh—had been granted their land by Moses and Joshua (Num. 32; Josh. 22). Thus the words of the Ephraimites were an insult to the Lord and His servants.

When people are wrong and refuse to accept logical reasoning and confess their faults, they often turn to violence in order to protect their reputation. This is the cause of most family disagreements, church fights, and international conflicts (James 4:1–12). But Jephthah got the best of the boastful men of Ephraim and killed 42,000 of their soldiers. The men of Ephraim themselves became “renegades,” for the word “escaped” in Judges 12: is the same as the word “fugitives [renegades]” in verse 4. They had to eat their words and lose their lives!

The people of Ephraim had their own regional pronunciation for the word shibboleth, which means “stream” or “floods.” They said “sibboleth,” and this gave them away (Matt. 26:73). It was a simple test, but it worked. Because of this story, the word shibboleth has become a part of our English vocabulary and is now found in our dictionaries. It stands for any kind of test that a group gives to outsiders to see whether they really belong. Usually the shibboleth is an old worn-out idea or doctrine that is really unimportant. In Ephraim’s case, however, it cost 42,000 people their lives.

After the defeat of Ammon and the trouncing of Ephraim, the Jews had thirty-one years of peace and security under the leadership of Jephthah and his three successors. How paradoxical that Jephthah the champion should have no family while Ibzan had thirty sons and thirty daughters and Abdon had forty sons and thirty grandsons.

Samson, however, the last judge God sent to His people, was the most paradoxical man of them all: a deliverer who couldn’t deliver himself, a conqueror who couldn’t conquer himself, a strong man who didn’t know when he was weak.