JEPHTHAH

a judge or regent (often a hero figure) of Israel who dominates a narrative in the Book of Judges, where he is presented as an exemplar of faith for Israel in its monotheistic commitment to Yahweh. Of the Israelite tribe in Gilead (present northwest Jordan), he was banished from his home and became the head of a powerful band of brigands. Oppressed by the rapacity of the non-Israelite peoples of Hauran and Ammon, the Gileadites implored Jephthah to avenge the injustice. He successfully overcame the enemy but at the cost, according to the story, of having to sacrifice his daughter to Yahweh in fulfillment of a vow setting the price of victory, a possible mythological basis for dedicating certain Israelite women to virginity. An incident in which Jephthah led the slaughter of the aggressor Israelite tribe of Ephraim (who were detected by their inability to pronounce the sound sh in the Hebrew word shibboleth) rests on weak historical grounds. Biblical scholars interpret the story of Jephthah as an expression of the Book of Judges' theological significance; viz., Israel's fortunes fluctuated depending on the degree of their fidelity to Yahweh.