Judgeschapter 12
15 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 11th century BC · History
And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire.
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Judges Overview.
This chapter was written for Israelites who knew that the tribes spoke one language in different accents, and tradition gives the book to Samuel. It follows the man of the last chapter into a quarrel with his own countrymen. Then it slows down to record three judges by their towns, households and graves. It asks what happens when pride between tribes is answered with force. Listen for the single word on which lives turn at the river. Notice how the closing verses measure a leader by his family when there is no war to report.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who knew that the tribes spoke one language in different ways
- What
- An account of Ephraim's quarrel with Jephthah and the slaughter at the fords of the Jordan, followed by short records of the judges Ibzan, Elon and Abdon.
- Where
- The fords of the Jordan below Zaphon, then Bethlehem, Aijalon in Zebulun and Pirathon in the hill country of Ephraim.
- When
- About 1090 to 1070 BC on the traditional reckoning, Jephthah's six years followed by twenty-five years under the three judges.
- Why
- To show the tribes of Israel turning their swords on one another, and to record the years of peace that followed under three judges.
Historical context
The chapter's first half belongs to Jephthah, head of Gilead, and to the tribe of Ephraim, which crosses the river to confront him. The second half records three judges by name, town, household and grave.
Show the rest of the historical context, 7 more paragraphs
The years run about 1090 to 1070 BC on the traditional reckoning. Jephthah's term is six years, the shortest the book gives any judge, and the three who follow are given seven, ten and eight, which is twenty five years across them.
The war is fought at the crossings of the Jordan below Zaphon, and the crossings are the whole mechanism of it, since a man going home to Ephraim had to pass one.
The occasion is a complaint about not being called to the Ammonite war, followed by an insult: verse 4 says the Gileadites fought because the Ephraimites had called them fugitives.
A first hearer knew what the fords were for. Ehud held them against Moab at Judges 3:28 and Gideon asked Ephraim to hold them against Midian at Judges 7:24, so this is the third time in the book a crossing decides a war, and the first time the men stopped there are Israelites.
He knew the difference the test turned on, because he could hear it. The two pronunciations differ by a single consonant, and the check only works because the difference was real, consistent and unmistakable between one group of Israelites and another.
He also knew Ephraim's record. The tribe asked Joshua for more land at Joshua 17:14 while the Canaanite chariots still held the valley, and brought this same complaint to Gideon at Judges 8:1 and had it turned aside with a compliment.
And he understood how the last eight verses record a judge. Thirty sons and thirty daughters married outside the clan, or forty sons and thirty grandsons on seventy donkeys, is how standing was counted when there was no war to report.
Significance
For a first hearer the horror was the arithmetic. Forty two thousand men of one tribe died at a river crossing, killed by other Israelites, and the book records it in two verses without a word of comment.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
It also completed a comparison. The same tribe had made the same complaint to two deliverers, and the difference between a soft answer and a hard one is the difference between three verses and a war.
The quiet ending mattered as much. Twenty five years pass with no enemy named, which is how this book records peace, and it is the last such stretch before the Philistine years.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The test at the fords turns on how one word was said, and the commentators work it as a question of speech. Radak holds that the word chosen stands for a whole class of words: "Just as they would test them with this word, so too they would test them with ever word that has a שׁ (shin) in it, and the Ephrathites would read it as שׂ (sin), and the text chose one of the words" (Radak on Judges 12:6:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0). He gives a second explanation, that the word was chosen because a flowing stream stood at the place where the men of Ephraim were crossing, and he sets the whole case beside one from his own day: "This is like the people of France, who do not understand how to read שׁ (shin) and read it like a weak תֿ (thaw)" (same ref). Rashi glosses the word itself as the flow of the river and says of the men stopped there that "They were not proficient in proper pronunciation" (Rashi on Judges 12:6:1 and 12:6:2, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY). On the taunt that began the quarrel he follows the Targum, and reads it as the lowliest in Ephraim mocking Gilead over its standing among Ephraim and Manasseh (Rashi on Judges 12:4:1, same edition). On the first judge named after Jephthah he hands on the identification the Talmud makes, "Ivtzan. Boaz", and adds that this is the husband of Ruth and the ancestor of King David (Rashi on Judges 12:8:1, same edition, citing Bava Basra 91a). Malbim on Judges 12:1:1, Malbim on Judges 12:3:1, Radak on Judges 12:5:1, Radak on Judges 12:7:1, Radak on Judges 12:14:1 and Metzudat David on Judges 12:9:1 stand as citations, since the corpus holds no English version of them.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records seventeen rabbinic locators on this chapter, sixteen of them Midrash and one Talmud, each a locator without text. The quarrel Ephraim brings to Jephthah draws Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 11:1. The word at the fords draws Bereshit Rabbah 97:3, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 54, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 6:8, Midrash Tanchuma, Bechukotai 5:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bechukotai 7:1 and Midrash Yelamdenu, Selections from Yalkut Talmud Torah 184:2. The death of Jephthah draws Bereshit Rabbah 60:3, Vayikra Rabbah 37:4, Kohelet Rabbah 10:15:1 and Otzar Midrashim, The Aleph Bet of ben Sira 1:14. Ibzan draws the one Talmud locator of the chapter, Bava Batra 91a:10, with Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 5:36, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 5:38 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 1:19:2 beside it. Abdon draws Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 17:1, and the years of the minor judges draw Sifrei Bamidbar 42:3. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Judges 12:6:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Rashi, Rashi on Judges 12:4:1, 12:6:1, 12:6:2 and 12:8:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Judges 12:1:1 and 12:3:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Judges 12:9:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Shibboleth at the fords of Jordan
Judges 12:1-3
Ephraim brought the same complaint to Gideon at 8:1, and here the tribe threatens to burn Jephthah's house. Jephthah answers with a fact the narrative never reported, that “when I called, you did not save me”, and Albert Barnes places that call at his election in chapter 11. The Hebrew behind “I risked my life” returns at 1 Samuel 19:5 and 28:21 for a risk knowingly taken.
Judges 12:1
“Compare the similar complaint of the Ephraimites to Gideon Jdg 8:1, when a civil war was only avoided by Gideon’s wise and patriotic moderation. The overhearing pride of Ephraim comes out in both occurrences (see also Jos 17:14-18). We will burn thine house upon thee with fire - Compare the fierce threat of the Philistines to Samson’s wife Jdg 14:15, and the yet fiercer execution Jdg 15:6. Burning appears as a mode of capital punishment Gen 38:24; Jos 7:25, and as a mode of desperate warfare (Jdg 1:8; Jdg 20:48; Jos 8:8, Jos 8:19, etc.).”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Judges 12:1
“And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together,.... Or "cried" (r); got together by a cry or proclamation made: in the Hebrew text it is, "a man of Ephraim"; not a single man, but a body of men, who met together and joined as one man.”
Judges 12:1
“Northward - Over Jordan, where Jephthah was, in the northern part of the land beyond Jordan. And said - Through pride and envy, contending with him as they did before with Gideon. Over - Not over Jordan, for there he was already; but over the borders of the Israelites land beyond Jordan.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read Jephthah's answer as proof that the charge of the men of Ephraim was false. Ephraim, in their reading, held back until the Ammonites were beaten and then came to fight Jephthah. The quarrel turns on who failed whom.
Judges 12:2
“When I called you ... - This circumstance is not related in the main narrative. It is likely to have occurred when Jephthah was first chosen leader by the Gileadites, and when Ephraim would probably ignore his pretensions.”
the Lord delivered them into my hand: Jephthah gives the victory to the LORD, and Matthew Henry notes that he takes none of the credit for himself. Gilead crossed over and fought the Ammonites with no help from Ephraim, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point out. Ephraim has no cause to fight.
Judges 12:3
“I put my life in my hands - Compare 1Sa 19:5; 1Sa 28:21. The phrase expresses the utmost possible risk, knowingly incurred.”
Judges 12:4-7
The war turns on the taunt that the Gileadites were “fugitives in Ephraim”, a point Adam Clarke says is lost. The test at the ford rests on one consonant, and Clarke argues the difference between “Shibboleth” and “Sibboleth” was plain to a Hebrew ear. The 42,000 Ephraimites killed are the heaviest loss of one tribe, and Jephthah's six years are the shortest term of any judge.
Judges 12:4
“And fought with Ephraim - Some commentators suppose that there were two battles in which the Ephraimites were defeated: the first mentioned in the above clause; and the second occasioned by the taunting language mentioned in the conclusion of the verse, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim. Where the point of this reproach lies, or what is the reason of it, cannot be easily ascertained.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 12:4
“Ye Gileadites - These words are a contemptuous expression of the Ephraimites concerning the Gileadites, whom they call fugitives of Ephraim; the word Ephraim being here taken largely, as it comprehends the other neighbouring tribes, of which Ephraim was the chief; and especially their brethren of Manasseh, who lived next to them, and were descended from the same father, Joseph.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Matthew Henry notices that the word fugitive, which Ephraim had thrown at Gilead in verse 4, now describes the Ephraimites fleeing to the river. The insult comes back on the men who spoke it. Holding the fords cut off the road home.
Judges 12:5
“Here was, First, Cruelty enough in the destruction of them. Sufficient surely was the punishment which was inflicted by many; when they were routed in the field, there needed not this severity to cut off all that escaped.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give the meaning of Shibboleth as a stream, a word the fords of the Jordan put in the Gileadites' mouths. Albert Barnes takes the 42,000 Ephraimites to include those killed in the battle and those killed at the fords. Matthew Henry calls it cruelty.
Judges 12:6
“Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth - The original differs only in the first letter ס samech, instead of ש sheen; אמר נא שבלת ויאמר סבלת emar na Shibboleth, vaiyomer Sibboleth. The difference between ש seen, without a point, which when pointed is pronounced sheen, and ס samech, is supposed by many to be imperceptible. But there can be no doubt there was, to the ears of a Hebrew, a most sensible distinction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 12:6
“Could not frame - Or rather, he did not frame to speak right; so as he was required to do it. The Hebrew text doth not say, that he could not do it, but that he did it not, because suspecting not the design he uttered it speedily according to his manner of expression.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jephthah judged Israel six years: John Gill holds that after the war with Ephraim all Israel took Jephthah as judge. The text names no city for his grave in Gilead. Gill takes it to be Mizpah, his own house.
Judges 12:7
“And Jephthah judged Israel six years,.... After the affair of the Ephraimites, he was acknowledged by all Israel as their judge and supreme governor, but did not live long; being perhaps depressed and worn away with grief, on account of his daughter, and other troubles that attended him: then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead: it is not said in what city he was buried, but very probably it was in his own city Mizpeh, where he dwelt.”
Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
Judges 12:8-15
Three judges close the chapter, and what is recorded of them is households and graves, the book's mark of a quiet stretch. Abdon's forty sons and thirty grandsons ride seventy donkeys, as Jair's thirty sons rode thirty, so standing is counted in mounts and marriages. Which Bethlehem Ibzan came from is unsettled, since Joshua 19:15 names one in Zebulun, and the rabbis quoted by John Gill identify him with Boaz.
Judges 12:8
“And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. There were two Bethlehems, one in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos 19:15 of which some think this man was; and another in the tribe of Judah, the city of Jesse and David, and of the Messiah; and Josephus says (x), Ibzan was of the tribe of Judah, of the city of Bethlehem; and because Boaz was of the same place, and lived in the times of the judges, the Jewish Rabbins (y) are of opinion that he is the same with Ibzan; so Jarchi and Ben Gersom. (x) Antiqu. l. 5. c.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 12:8
“And after him Ibzan - It appears that during the administration of Jephthah, six years - Ibzan, seven years - Elon, ten years - and Abdon, eight years, (in the whole thirty-one years), the Israelites had peace in all their borders; and we shall find by the following chapter that in this time of rest they corrupted themselves, and were afterwards delivered into the power of the Philistines.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ibzan's sixty sons and daughters follow straight after Jephthah's one daughter. John Wesley sets the two houses side by side, sixty children married and one who died unmarried, and John Gill draws the same contrast. Wesley gives both to the LORD.
Judges 12:9
“And he had thirty sons and thirty daughters,.... Which was a very uncommon case for a man to have so many children, and those as to their sex to be equal. Between the former judge and him there was a great difference, in respect of this circumstance of children; he had but one daughter, an only child; and she, by reason of his vow, not suffered to marry. Such a difference does God, in his all wise Providence, make even among good men: nor is this any certain characteristic of a good man.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 12:9
“What a difference between his and his predecessor's family! Ibzan had sixty children, and all married: Jephthah but one, and she dies unmarried. Some are increased, others diminished: all is the Lord's doing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ibzan died after judging Israel seven years and was buried in his own town. John Gill notes that no event of his rule is recorded beyond his sons and daughters. Each of these judges ends with a burial.
Judges 12:10
“Then died Ibzan, and was buried in Bethlehem. He died at the end of his seven years of government, and was buried in his native place; nothing memorable having happened during his being judge; this is all that is recorded of him.”
Elon comes from Zebulun, the tribe Albert Barnes remembers for its courage under Barak at 4:10 and in Deborah's song at 5:18. John Gill finds no enemy named in his ten years.
Judges 12:11
“A Zebulonite - The tribe of Zebulon had shown its bravery, patriotism, and prowess in the time of Barak Jdg 4:10; Jdg 5:18.”
Two towns carried the name Aijalon. John Gill notes that the words in the land of Zebulun set this one apart from the Aijalon of Dan at 1:35. Elon is buried in his own tribe's land.
Judges 12:12
“And Elon the Zebulonite died,.... At the end of his ten years of government: and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun; which is added to distinguish it from another Aijalon in the tribe of Dan Jdg 1:35.”
Pirathon lies in Ephraim, and Albert Barnes places it at Feratah, six miles west of Shechem. Matthew Henry sees Ephraim judge Israel again through Abdon, after the slaughter of Ephraim at the fords. The tribe Jephthah struck down now judges Israel.
Judges 12:13
“A Pirathonite - He was, therefore, an Ephraimite 1Ch 27:14. Its name still lingers in “Feratah,” 6 miles west of Shechem. The 25 years, apparently consecutive, occupied by the judgeship of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, seem to have been very uneventful and prosperous, since the only record of them, preserved in the annals of their country, relates to the flourishing families and peaceful magnificence of two of the number.”
Abdon lived to see his sons' sons, the blessing of Psalm 128:6. Matthew Henry holds that by his day the Philistines had begun to press on Israel, whose forty years open at 13:1. Abdon judged Israel eight years.
The chapter that opened with Ephraim at war with Gilead closes with an Ephraimite judge buried in his own town. Albert Barnes cites 1 Chronicles 27:14, which names Benaiah of Pirathon, of the sons of Ephraim, among David's commanders. The town kept its place in Israel.
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose joining a tribal war to three short judge notices of the kind that record a family and a grave, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The word that could not be said | Verses 5 and 6 turn a river crossing into a test of one consonant. A man who could not say Shibboleth said Sibboleth and was killed at the fords. The whole episode rests on a difference of pronunciation between two groups of Israelites who spoke the same language, and the word has come into English for any test that sorts one group from another.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Judges 12:4 to 6. | Judges 12:5, Judges 12:6 |
| The same complaint answered twice | At Judges 8:1 Ephraim asks Gideon why he was not called, and Gideon answers with a compliment that ends the quarrel inside three verses. At verse 1 here the same tribe brings the same charge to Jephthah and adds a threat to burn his house down with him inside it. Jephthah answers with a fact and then fights, and forty two thousand die. The book sets the two answers beside each other without commenting on either.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 12:1 to 3. | Judges 8:1, Judges 8:2, Judges 8:3, Judges 12:1, Judges 12:2, Judges 12:3 |
| The judges counted in sons and donkeys | Ibzan has thirty sons and thirty daughters and arranges sixty marriages outside his clan at verse 9. Abdon has forty sons and thirty grandsons riding seventy donkeys at verse 14. Jair's thirty sons rode thirty donkeys at Judges 10:4, so standing in this book is counted in marriages and in mounts, and Judges 5:10 addresses those who ride on white donkeys as people of rank.John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Judges 12:8 to 15. | Judges 12:9, Judges 12:14, Judges 10:4, Judges 5:10 |
The structure
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The two halves measure each other. The first half kills forty two thousand Israelites in six verses and the second half buries three judges in eight, and the book gives the quiet stretch as much room as the slaughter.
The years the text assigns the three judges of verses 8 to 15 are seven, ten and eight, which is twenty five years across the three.
Across the canon
Joshua 17:14 to 18 has Ephraim asking Joshua for a larger allotment while the Canaanite chariots still hold the valley. That, Judges 8:1 and verse 1 here are the tribe's three recorded appearances of this kind.
The phrase at verse 3 about risking his own life returns at 1 Samuel 19:5 and 1 Samuel 28:21 for a risk knowingly taken.
The forty two thousand of verse 6 is the heaviest loss of a single tribe recorded in the book, above the twenty five thousand one hundred of Benjamin at Judges 20:35, and every man of it died at a river crossing at the hands of other Israelites.
Abdon is buried at Pirathon in Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites at verse 15, an Amalekite name still standing inside Israel's own hill country. Deborah's song at Judges 5:14 already set Ephraim's name beside Amalek.
In the New Testament
No New Testament writer quotes this chapter. Jephthah is named at Hebrews 11:32 for what he did by faith, and the war of these verses is not mentioned there.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, on Judges 12:1 to 7 and 12:8 to 15; Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2012 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 12:1 to 6.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.