JU11-2: Jephthah’s Mother Was A Prostitute, NOT A Concubine

“Now Yiftach, a brave soldier from Gil‘ad,
was the son of a prostitute. “
-Judges 11:1

Okay, so right off the bat we need to clear up a false doctrine about who Yiftach (Jephthah in English) really was.

So let me be very clear.

Jephthah was a bastard son born to his father Gilead and a prostitute.

The original Hebrew makes this very clear.

It says Jepthah was an ISHSHAH ZONAH.

ISHSHAH means a woman or female.

And ZONAH means a whore, harlot or prostitute.

The reason I’m stressing this is because some Jewish sages like to say that Jephthah’s mother was actually Gilead’s concubine.

I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but that simply isn’t true.

There’s zero Scriptural evidence to support that notion.

The only reason folks want to make Jephthah’s mother a concubine is to find a way to accord him some merit.

Later on the Scriptures will establish Jephthah as an honorable man worthy of much respect and I guess some Rabbis just couldn’t stomach the idea that the son of a whore could be given such elevated status.

So sorry to rain on anyone’s parade but I’m not going to just go along with anyone’s desires about how they WANT things to be in the Scriptures or how they FEEL certain passages should be interpreted

I’m here to tell you the truth in all its ugly reality.

And the truth is that Jephthah was an illegitimate child.

And on top of that, here’s another ugly truth you should face with your eyes wide open.

It was actually quite common for men during this era to sleep with and produce multiple children with prostitutes.

What was tragic about this situation is that usually the father would have nothing to do with any of the kids he had with a whore.

And more often than not, there really wasn’t any way to prove whose father the child of a prostitute belonged to.

So common prostitution (not to be confused with cultic prostitution which is fornication) was a normal practice and all of the leading men of Israel regularly participated in it.

I know this is not something openly discussed but it’s true.

And I think you can see how it would be darn near impossible for the child of a prostitute to be claimed by his or her father.

I’m getting ahead of myself here but we get a glimpse of this situation in the story about the two prostitutes who approached King Solomon about a baby each claimed was their own.

Now as you can imagine, children born from prostitutes were considered the scum of society.

From birth they were viewed as outcasts and they received no rights, no education and and for the most part grew up in dire poverty.

However, Jephthah’s father Gilead was a rare exception to the rule.

For whatever reason, maybe it was because his conscience just wouldn’t leave him alone, Gilead made it clear to his other legitimate sons that Yiftach was to be considered as a normal member of the family and thus be given a portion of the family’s wealth.

Well, Gilead’s legit sons weren’t too happy about this…for many reasons.

Not only would a portion of their wealth be given to a son of a whore but it was embarrassing to them.

They considered themselves part of the elite class and to have this bastard child among their midst was just too unsettling for them.

We’ll continue on with this story the next time we meet.