sevenfold deliverance (vers. 11, 12) which Israel had experienced at the hands of Jehovah.292 Then follows,

in ver. 7, a general reference to the twofold contemporaneous oppression by the Ammonites in the east and

north, and by the Philistines in the south and west. In ver. 8 the account of the Ammonites' oppression  293

commences with the statement, that "they ground down and bruised the children of Israel that year," and in

a similar manner for eighteen years. In fact, the Ammonites, in their successful raids across the Jordan,

occupied districts of the territory of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, which bordered either on the Dead Sea

or on the fords of Jordan.294

Next, we have in verses 10-15 an account of Israel's humiliation and entreaty at Shiloh, and of the Lord's

answer by the Urim and Thummim. Finally, ver. 16 informs us, how the genuineness of their repentance

appeared not in professions and promises, but in the putting away of all "strange gods," and that when

there was no immediate prospect of Divine help. After this, to reproduce the wonderful imagery of Scripture:

"His soul became short on account of the misery of Israel." That misery had lasted too long; He could not,

as it were, be any longer angry with them, nor bear to see their suffering. For, as a German writer beautifully

observes: "The love of God is not like the hard and fast logical sequences of man; it is ever free.... The

parable of the prodigal affords a glimpse of the marvelous 'inconsistency' of the Father, who receives the

wanderer when he suffered the consequences of his sin.... Put away the strange gods, and the withered rod

will burst anew into life and verdure." And such is ever God's love - full and free. For, in the words of the

author just quoted: "Sin and forgiveness are the pivots of all history, specially of that of Israel, including in

that term the spiritual Israel."

Now, indeed, was deliverance at hand. For the first time these eighteen years that Ammon had camped in

Gilead, the children of Israel also camped against them in Mizpeh, or, as it is otherwise called (Joshua 13:26;

20:8), in Ramath-Mizpeh or Ramoth-Gilead (the modern Salt), a city east of the Jordan, in an almost direct line

from Shiloh. The camp of Israel could not have been better chosen. Defended on three sides by high hills,

Mizpeh lay "on two sides of a narrow ravine, half way up, crowned by a (now) ruined citadel,"  295 which

probably at all times defended the city.

"Ramoth-Gilead must always have been the key of Gilead, at the head of the only easy road from the Jordan,

opening immediately on to the rich plateau of the interior, and with this isolated cone rising close above it,

fortified from very early time s, by art as well as by nature." All was thus prepared, and now the people of

Gilead, through their "princes," resolved to offer the supreme command to any one who had already begun

to fight against the children of Ammon - that is, who on his own account had waged warfare, and proved

successful against them. This notice is of great importance for the early history of Jephthah.

Few finer or nobler characters are sketched even in Holy Scripture than Jephthah, or rather Jiphthach ("the

breaker through"). He is introduced to us as "a mighty man of valor" -the same terms in which the angel had

first addressed Gideon (6:12). But this "hero of might" must first learn to conquer his own spirit. His history

is almost a parallel to that of Abimelech - only in the way of contrast. For, whereas Abimelech had of his

own accord left his father's house to plan treason, Jephthah was wrongfully driven out by his brothers from

his father's inheritance. Abimelech had appealed to the citizens of Shechem to help him in his abominable

ambition; Jephthah to the "elders of Gilead" for redress in his wrong, but apparently in vain (11:7).

Abimelech had committed unprovoked and cruel murder with his hired band; Jephthah withdrew to the land

of Tob, which, from 2 Samuel 10:6, 8, we know to have been on the northern boundary of Peraea between

Syria and the land of Ammon. There he gathered around him a number of freebooters, as David afterwards in

similar circumstances (1 Samuel 22:2); not, like Abimelech, to destroy his father's house, b ut, like David, to

war against the common foe. This we infer from Judges 10:18, which shows that, before the war between

Gilead and Ammon, Jephthah had acquired fame as contending against Ammon. This life of adventure

would suit the brave Gileadite and his followers; for he was a wild mountaineer, only imbued with the true

spirit of Israel. And now, when war had actually broken out, "the elders of Gilead" were not in doubt whom

to choose as their chief. They had seen and repented their sin against Jehovah, and now they saw and

confessed their wrong towards Jephthah, and appealed to his generosity. In ordinary circumstances he

would not have consented; but he came back to them, as the elders of Gilead had put it, because they were