Judges 11:1

1 And so in that time Jephthah, a man of Gilead, was a full strong man, and a fighter, the son of a woman whore, the which Jephthah was born of Gilead. (Now at that time Jephthah, a Gileadite, was a very strong man, and a fighter, the son of a whore-woman, and his father was Gilead.)

Judges 11:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 11:1

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour,
&c.] Jephthah had his name of Gileadite either from his father, whose name was Gilead, or from the city and country in which he was born, which is most likely, and so was of the same country with the preceding judge; and he was a man of great strength and valour, and which perhaps became known by his successful excursions on parties of the enemies of Israel, the Ammonites, being at the head of a band of men, who lived by the booty they got from them:

and he was the son of an harlot;
the Targum says, an innkeeper; and, according to Kimchi, she was a concubine, which some reckoned no better than an harlot, but such are not usually called so; some Jewish writers will have her to be one of another tribe his father ought not to have married; and others, that she was of another nation, a Gentile, so Josephus ^F3: and, according to Patricides ^F4, he was the son of a Saracen woman; but neither of these are sufficient to denominate her a harlot:

and Gilead begat Jephthah;
he was his son; this was a descendant of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, called after the name of his great ancestor.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 7.
F4 Apud Selden. de Success. ad leg. Ebr. c. 3. p. 32.

Judges 11:1 In-Context

1 And so in that time Jephthah, a man of Gilead, was a full strong man, and a fighter, the son of a woman whore, the which Jephthah was born of Gilead. (Now at that time Jephthah, a Gileadite, was a very strong man, and a fighter, the son of a whore-woman, and his father was Gilead.)

2 And Gilead had a wife, of whom he had sons, which after that they increased (and after they had grown up), casted out Jephthah, and said, Thou mayest not be (an) heir in the house of our father, for thou art born of another mother.

3 And (so) he fled (from) his brethren, and eschewed them, and dwelled in the land of Tob; and poor men were gathered to him, and followed him as a prince.

4 (And) In those days the sons of Ammon fought against Israel;

5 and when they continued sharply (their enmities), the greater men in birth of Gilead, went to take into the help of themselves Jephthah from the land of Tob; (and when they continued their sharp enmities, the men of great age, that is, the elders, of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob to help them;)