The Skeptics Annotated Bible (237 page)

(9.57b)
“All the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham.”

10
And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.

2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

3 And after him arose
Jair
, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.

4 And he
had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities
, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

(10.3-4)
“Jair … had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities.”

5 And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.

(10.6-16) This is the fifth time that the same stupid story is repeated in Judges. (See Judges 2.14, 3.8, 4.2, and 6.1 for the others.) So you know what’s going to happen: The Israelites do evil in the sight of the Lord; God gets angry and sells them as slaves; the Israelites cry out to God; and God slaughters the people he sold the Israelites to.

A few details change each time the story is told: the number of years the Israelites are enslaved, the people that God sells them to, and the person God chooses to help with the massacre. This time God chose Jephthah.

6 And
the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD
, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.

(10.6)
“The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD.”

7 And
the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them
into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

(10.7)
“The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them.”

8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

10 And
the children of Israel cried unto the LORD
, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

(10.10)
“The children of Israel cried unto the LORD.”

11
And the LORD said unto the children of Israel,
Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore
I will deliver you no more.

14
Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen;
let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.

(10.11-14) “And the LORD said unto the children of Israel … I will deliver you no more … Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen.”

15 And
the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned:
do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.

(10.15) “The children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned.”

16
And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

(10.16) “And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”

17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

18 And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

11
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.

2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

3 Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.

4 And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

5 And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

6 And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

7 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?

8 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

9 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

10 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.

11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.

12 And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?

13 And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.

14 And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:

15 And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;

17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.

18 Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.

19 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.

20 But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

21 And the LORD
God
of Israel
delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites
, the inhabitants of that country.

(11.21)
“God … delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites.”
(Numbers 21.21)

22 And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

23 So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

24
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess?
So
whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.