“Yiftach judged Israel for six years. Then Yiftach from Gil‘ad died, and he was buried in one of the cities of Gil‘ad.”-Judges 12:7
After his victory over the Ammonites, there’s something quite peculiar about Jephthah’s judgement over Israel.
It only lasted 6 years.
All of the other Shophetim ruled Israel from between 20-80 years.
However, Jephthah’s rulership seemed to have been cut short…as if God was punishing him for something.
And not only that, it appears Jephthah did not receive a proper burial.
According to the original Hebrew (not the English! But the original Hebrew), we’re told he was buried in a couple of undisclosed cities.
That’s right…I said cities.
Plural.
You’re probably thinking…come again?
What to make of all this?
Well, the ancient rabbis have a good explanation for why Jephthah’s period of judgement was so short.
Their answer might surprise you.
They say the Lord punished Jephthah for killing his daughter because of the rash vow he made.
A promise the Lord never demanded or asked for.
And as for the reason why he was buried in multiple cities, in the Talmud, we’re told…
“Because he was stricken with leprosy as a punishment, his death was lingering, and his limbs fell off one by one, and were buried in different cities where they happened to drop off”.
Pretty gruesome, isn’t it?
I can’t say for sure whether that’s true or not.
But one thing we can be certain about is that while Jephthah did indeed do great things for God and Israel, he also committed some horrible sins as well…
Not the least being the murder of his daughter over that crazy vow he made.
The takeaway here is as simple as it is somber:
Ye shall reap what ye sow.
The Lord ALWAYS pays back good for good and evil for evil.
Over and out.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Do not be deceived,
God is not mocked;
for whatever a man sows,
this he will also reap.”
-Galatians 6:7
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