1. Spirit-driven savagery (10:6-12:7)

Everything about 10:6-18 points to a climactic crisis. The notation of Israel’s evil explicitly includes idolatry as Israel worships its enemies' gods! For the second time in 3:7-16:31 Yahweh’s wrath blazes. The introduction to the judges' stories (2:6-3:6) projected two outbreaks of divine wrath. The first initiated Yahweh’s chastening oppressions and merciful deliverances (2:14-19). When Israel’s faithlessness only deepened, a second outbreak of wrath signaled a withdrawal of Yahweh’s saving presence. In the narrative itself, the first reference to divine wrath comes in the Othniel account (3:8), followed by deepening apostasy. This second outbreak signals the beginning of the end. The inclusion of the Philistines (10:7), who figure in Samson’s career (13:1-16:31), indicates the gravity of the oppression. Thus 10:6-18 introduces both the Jephthah and the Samson stories. Since the Philistine crisis contributed to the establishment of the monarchy, this reference foreshadows the end of Israel as a tribal confederation led by charismatic heroes.

Israel’s outcry contains a confession of sin and meets with an emphatic divine refusal: “I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen.” Israel’s rejoinder betrays its double-mindedness: “Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Jdg 10:16a can therefore describe only a fleeting fit of foxhole fidelity, not true repentance. Israel rearranges the furniture on its sinking spiritual ship. The divine response in 10:16b finds near universal misinterpretation to mean Yahweh could bear Israel’s misery no longer (NIV). The Hebrew expression used is “his soul became short at Israel’s toil,” an idiom denoting extreme aggravation, not compassion (cf. 16:16). Finally, Israel’s outcry no longer leads to the emergence of a divinely sent hero, but to a purely human canvass for a leader. Jephthah emerges under a cloud of apostasy, alienation, and divine aggravation.

Jephthah is the first hero not to come into his role by direct divine initiative (11:1-11). As a mighty warrior he has the “right stuff” to lead Israel. His irregular parentage, however, eclipses his native potential, and rejection by his kindred consigns him to a brigand’s life. When the crisis forces the Gileadites to send for Jephthah, he vents his bitterness in a complaint echoing that of Yahweh in 10:11-14. Jephthah shows himself a hard negotiator, alive to his counterparts' vulnerability, mercilessly tightening the screws until he gets what he wants. Not rash, he demands for every promise the appropriate definition and guarantee.

In 11:12-28 Jephthah’s proclivity to bargain appears again. In two exchanges he tries to dissuade the Ammonite king from war. Strangely, Jephthah’s whole message addresses Moab, not Ammon. He appeals to Israel’s original, nonaggressive policy, its right to possession by divinely enabled conquest, and three centuries of actual occupation. His concluding charge (vv.23-27) borders on insult, and the claim “May Yahweh judge . . .” amounts to a declaration of war. Unintimidated by Jephthah’s rhetoric, the Ammonite king refuses to listen.

With Jephthah’s bluff called, war is imminent (11:29-40). The onrush of the Spirit of Yahweh certifies Jephthah as a charismatic hero as he successfully musters an army. The most conspicuous concomitant, however, of the Spirit’s possession of Jephthah is his vow. Hard-bargaining Jephthah acts as though Yahweh were the same. Far from rash, Jephthah’s vow constitutes a calculated gambit with God with a priceless chip on the table. But those who attempt to manipulate God ensnare themselves in their own devices. Jephthah, the victor in battle, loses his gambit. Three different Hebrew idioms in 11:34 underscore the magnitude of his loss. Worse, Jephthah grieves only for himself and upbraids his daughter. She heroically accepts her fate, death as a human sacrifice. The notion that she became perpetual virgin, based on 11:39, comes late in the history of interpretation and lacks foundation. The daughter, not Jephthah, finds perpetual remembrance in Israel.

Jephthah’s final act seals his fate as a disastrous antihero. In 12:1-6 the Ephraimites test Jephthah’s exercise of government, a role for which he bargained. He faces a crisis identical to that faced by Gideon (7:24-8:3), both of which contrast with an event in Ehud’s career (3:27-29). Ehud eagerly enlisted the Ephraimites in battle, and the latter employed a strategy of entrapment at the Jordan. Gideon’s call for Ephraimite assistance receives the identical response but is followed by a bitter complaint that Gideon answers with consummate tact. Jephthah, faced with Ephraimite jealousy, responds with bitter recrimination and employs the Ephraimite strategy to destroy forty-two thousand of his fellow Israelites. The man who negotiated with Israel’s enemy preemptorily slaughters his countrymen! More Israelites die here at Jephthah’s hand than in the rest of the book of Judges. The charismatic deliverer has become a destroyer.

The conclusion (12:7) notes only that Jephthah led Israel, conspicuously omitting the regular reference to Israel having peace (cf. 3:30; 5:31; 8:28). How could the land rest during the reign of such a leader? The chronological reference also insinuates failure. Prior to Jephthah, the periods of peace are at least twice as long as the time of oppression. Jephthah’s career is shorter by a significant margin than the time of oppression. The balance sheet on Israel’s judges now registers a loss. Jephthah embodies fully the threat in charismatic leadership. He becomes an incomprehensible monster, sacrificing his daughter and slaughtering his fellow Israelites. Most troubling of all is that this horror begins with the onrush of the Spirit! The spark of divine power lit a fuse, not a fire. Power alone, even God’s power, without the accompanying grace of character, destroys.