Richtere 11:1

1 Jeftha nu, de Gileadiet, was een strijdbaar held, maar hij was een hoerekind; doch Gilead had Jeftha gegenereerd.

Richtere 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Richtere 11:1 In-Context

1 Jeftha nu, de Gileadiet, was een strijdbaar held, maar hij was een hoerekind; doch Gilead had Jeftha gegenereerd.
2 Gileads huisvrouw baarde hem ook zonen; en de zonen dezer vrouw, groot geworden zijnde, stieten Jeftha uit, en zeiden tot hem: Gij zult in het huis onzes vaders niet erven, want gij zijt een zoon van een andere vrouw.
3 Toen vlood Jeftha voor het aangezicht zijner broederen, en woonde in het land Tob; en ijdele mannen vergaderden zich tot Jeftha, en togen met hem uit.
4 En het geschiedde, na enige dagen, dat de kinderen Ammons tegen Israel krijgden.
5 Zo geschiedde het, als de kinderen Ammons tegen Israel krijgden, dat de oudsten van Gilead heengingen, om Jeftha te halen uit het land van Tob.
The Dutch Staten Vertaling translation is in the public domain.