{"id":55757,"date":"2019-05-19T17:37:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T14:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55757"},"modified":"2022-12-11T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T13:06:00","slug":"jephthah-in-his-generation-like-ishmael-in-his","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jephthah-in-his-generation-like-ishmael-in-his\/","title":{"rendered":"Jephthah In His Generation Like Ishmael In His \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[529,575,721],"acf":{"old_id":"55757","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":47479,"related_cahpter":"222","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"As the unwanted first born, he may have won the battle, but he lost the birthright","content":"

The story of Jephthah serves as an inversion of the Genesis narrative of Ishmael and Isaac. \u00a0It asks, \u201cwhat if the father\u2019s oldest son\u2014the banished son\u2014was brought back and appointed his father\u2019s heir?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jephthah is the first-born son of his father, Gilead, but he is born from a woman without status, in this case, a harlot. Gilead later marries and has other children. When those children are grown, they chase Jephthah away, saying \u201cYou shall have no share in our father\u2019s property, for you are the son of an outsider\u201d (11:2). <\/span><\/p>\n

But when the Ammonites come to attack the land of Gilead, its elders beg Jephthah to return. Jephthah rebuffs the elders, saying \u201cYou are the very people who rejected me\u2026. \u00a0How can you come to me now when you are in trouble?\u201d (11:7). The elders then offer Jephthah leadership over their land, and Jephthah assents. Jephthah defeats Ammon, achieving a victory that is both political and personal, as he has risen from the son of a harlot to become the leader of Gilead. <\/span><\/p>\n

But he issued an oath before the battle, vowing to sacrifice to God whatever first comes out of his house after the battle. Disastrously, he is met by his daughter. And the tragedy is complete because, as the verse continues, \u201cshe was an only child (<\/span>yechidah<\/span><\/em>); he had no other son or daughter.\u201d In his rashness, then, Jephthah has not only doomed his daughter but ended his line. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Focusing on the rise and fall of Jephthah\u2019s status offers a new understanding of Jephthah\u2019s cry at the story\u2019s end: \u201cAlas, daughter! \u2026 I have uttered a vow to the LORD, <\/span>velo uchal lashuv<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/i> (11:35). This last phrase is commonly translated as \u201cand I cannot <\/span>retract<\/b> [my vow].\u201d \u00a0But the more<\/span> literal translation of the phrase yields a new and deeper meaning: \u201cand [now] I cannot <\/span>return<\/b>,\u201d meaning that\u2014with no child to inherit him\u2014the birthright of Gilead must pass back to his half-brothers and their descendants. <\/span><\/p>\n

Underneath the drama, this story probes a societal fault line. In the polygamous world of ancient Israel, there would have been major tensions among wives over inheritance. The eldest son of the first wife could rightfully claim to be his father\u2019s first. But when a man took a subsequent wife he often promoted her to a position of primacy. The eldest son of this later wife could claim to be from his father\u2019s favorite. (See the work of my father, Prof. Zvi Szubin, on this subject). The Bible visits this struggle repeatedly, with God recognizing the preferred wife\u2019s children as deserving the birthright. <\/span><\/p>\n

Much like a Greek tragedy, the story of Jephthah demonstrates that fate cannot be thwarted. \u00a0Even when the first-born son successfully wins the birthright on the battlefield, he will still be disinherited and the divine order will prevail.<\/span><\/p>\n

image:\u00a0Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, “Jephthah’s Return,” c. 1700 \/ wikipedia<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55744,"id":55744,"title":"jud11-Giovanni_Antonio_Pellegrini","filename":"jud11-Giovanni_Antonio_Pellegrini.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud11-Giovanni_Antonio_Pellegrini.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-fate-of-jephthahs-daughter\/jud11-giovanni_antonio_pellegrini\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud11-giovanni_antonio_pellegrini","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55743,"date":"2019-05-19 10:53:54","modified":"2019-05-19 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