Page 18 - April 2026 - Truth & Tidings

t is difficult to turn to the story of Jeph- leave him not just childless but without
thah without a sense of reluctance. progeny clamours for our attention. The
IThe details of his life are so contested salience of this issue is underlined by
and yet so incontestably sad, his actions the fact that Jephthah’s story is followed
so mixedly heroic and horrific, and the immediately by that of Ibzan, one of the
interpretative decisions that we face so minor judges, whose record focuses exclu-
knotty that we would be glad just to turn sively on the care that he took in providing
the pages and pass Jephthah by without wives for his sons, and thus ensuring that
comment. But to do so would be to shirk his family line would continue. 2
our responsibility. Jephthah’s story is in To some readers, talk of moral ambigu-
the Bible because it has lessons for us – it ity in the story of Jephthah might seem
too is “written for our learning” (Rom wildly overblown, the result, perhaps, of
15:4). And it is in the Bible in the way an overactive imagination or injudicious
1
that it is because God wants us to wrestle reading. After all, does Jephthah not
with its details and, in our wrestling, to receive the accolade of a mention in He-
learn lessons that we would not grasp brews 11, where he is mentioned as part of
if this story were a simple morality tale the distinguished company “who through
with clearly delineated heroes and vil- faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righ-
lains whose motives and actions were teousness, obtained promises … escaped
void of ambiguity and contradiction. That the edge of the sword, out of weakness
dereliction of duty would be particularly were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,
unforgiveable in a series focusing on the turned to flight the armies of the aliens”
issue of family life in the book of Judges.
This assumes that the expression “took in
This is true, not only because Jephthah’s 2 thirty daughters from abroad for his sons”
story begins with details of his difficult (12:9) means daughters from another family or
upbringing, but because of how it ends. tribe in Israel, rather than foreign wives. This
In a book that is preoccupied with what reading is lexically unexceptionable and fits
happens when one generation replaces with the generally positive presentation of the
minor judges. However, even if Ibzan did take
another, the fact that Jephthah’s actions the dubious step of securing foreign wives, the
point still stands: he was interested in providing
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the for the future of his family and in ensuring a
KJV. progeny.

114 TRUTH kTidings April 2026