Judges CHAP. XII.
JƲdges the Twelfth contains, (1.) Jephtah's War with the Ephraimites, with its Cause and Event, and then his Death from, ver. 1. to 7. (2.) His Three Successors from ver. 8. to the end.
The Remarks upon the first part are; First, Such was the Pride of Ephraim, that they were Drunk with it, Isa. 28.1, 3. as being descended of Joseph the most Honourable of all the Patriarchs, and therefore out of Vain-glory and Envy, they pick a Quarrel with Jephtah and his Gileadites, as they had done before with Gideon, Judg. 8.1, 2.3. and with his few Followers, for Monopolizing the Glory of a great Victory to themselves with∣out their Assistance.
N. B. Though Gideon was a Meek Man, and with a soft Answer pacified their proud Rage; yet Jephtah (a more Morose Man) would not do so, for they gave him greater Provocations, calling him and his Followers a Company of Fugitives, that for Carnal ends had chosen their Habitations on the wrong side of Jordan, far from Shilo, and the whole Body of Israel, and they upbraid him for not calling them to be his Auxiliaries, that they might have shared with him in the Honour of his Conquest; and hereupon they threaten to burn his House with five. ver. 1.
N. B. Here good Jephtah is involv'd into another Calamity, Fluctus fluctum trudit, a Succession of Sorrows attended him, Velut unda supervenit undae, one Wave follows another. He was but newly returned from his Expedition against the Ammonites, and but newly also after that, made miserable by his Rash Vows Execution upon his only Child and Daughter; and now must he be necessitated to fight with his own Implacable Bre∣thren of Ephraim: Crosses seldom come single: However Jephtah resolves to be Innocent on his part, and labours to appease them by his Apology, ver. 2, 3. wherein he stoutly tells them, they made little of a Lye, for he had call'd them to aid him (though they denied it) and out of either neglect, or fear of danger, Page 138failed to come at his call, though he call'd them by Authority, as then the Judge of Israel; and upon your failure (saith he) I did put my Life in my Hand, and hazarded that pretious Jewel, upon great Disadvantages; yet the Lord stood with my few against the Ammonites many, and hath delivered not only us, but also your selves from their Slavery; wherefore ye ought with all thankfulness to have Congratulated the Conquest, and not Quarrel with the Conquerour for preventing your Danger in War, and for procuring your Liberty in Peace; forgive me this Wrong, in running such Hazards to preserve you and yours, &c.
N. B. This Speech prevails not now with Ephraim, as Gideon's had done before, not because this was less prevalent in it self, and not back'd with as Cogent Arguments, but because they were now deeplier prick'd with Pride and Envy, having no share at all in Jephtah's Victory, as they had some in Gideon's, by taking the two Kings Z•eb and Oreb; and now those two Hellish Furies, Pride and Envy aforenamed, do ripen them for their ruine, as Prov. 16.18.
The Second Remark is, The Event of this Civil War, when Jephtah found those Ephraimites irreconcileable, passing over Jordan to fight him in his own Countrey, even in the Countrey of Gilead, with a vast Army, and giving him and his Army (whom God had honoured with Victory over the Ammonites, though exceeding numerous) most Opprobius Nick Names, as Fugitives, and the very Scum, or Dr•ggs of Israel; he will not be so Mealy Mouth'd with them, as Gideon had been before him, Judg. 8. but re∣solves to fight them, Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est, &c. When he had nô hopes of Curing, he falls upon Cutting, and Corrects their Notorious Insolency with the Edge of the Sword.
N. B. And the same Lord of Hosts that had given him Victory over the Oppressing Ammonites, gives him Victory likewise over those Arrogant Ephraimites, that durst so Seditiously Rebel against their Supreme Magistrate whom God had extraordinarily call'd to be a Judge over Israel; insomuch as he slew Forty two Thousand of them, slaying not only these that stood in the Battel, but also all such as fled from it, discovering them∣selves to be Ephramites by their Lisping Language; for when they could not pronounce Shibolath (which signifies fluxus fluminis, the Ford of Jordan, (which they desired to over homeward,) they cryed [Sibboleth] and could not pro•ounce the Word with its Aspiration; so their Dialect discover'd them, and expos'd them to the Slaughter.
N. B. Jephtah might have offered many Hebrew words that had [sh] double in them, a Shomesh the Sun, Shelishah Three, or Sha•shelch a Chain, &c. in signification; but the word proposed was Shiboleth, because (saith Dr. Lightfoot) of the present occasion, for the word signifies a Stream, and the Ephraimites (denying themselves to be of Ephraim, having a wicked Principle of Liberty to Lye, rather than to Die) are required to call the Stream which they would have Waded thorough to Mount Ephraim, by the right name, and they could not name it aright with a breathing Pronounciation, like the French that cannot pronounce Aspirates, but call [Third] a Tird: Therefore seeing those Fuguives (a Name they had branded Jephtah with) could not breath a-right, are slain, and must breath no more, &c.
N. B. Not•well. How many discover themselves to be Naughty by their Lisping Lan∣guage in Religious Matters, speaking the language of Ashdod, Nehm. 13.24. Their Speech doth bewray them, as Matth. 26.73. By our words we shall be justified, or condemned, &c. Matth. 12.36.37.
The Third Remark upon the second part of this Twelfth Chapter is, The Successors of Jephtah, who after his two famous Victories Foreign and Domestick, in his six Years of Judgeship, then died; and was succeeded,
First, By Ibzan, ver. 7, 8.9, 10. He Judged Israel Seven years in peaceable times (as did his two Successors after him) and therefore nothing of special note acted against For∣reign or Domeslick Enemies is Recorded of them, in the time of their Judgeship, save only that this Judge Ibzan was Renowned both for the Number, and for the Equality of the number of his Sons and Daughters, having Thirty of each, whereby he linked himself into a large Affinity, and so was much strengthened in his Government. According to the Duty of a good Father, he sent his Daughters out of his Family abroad, where he had found fit Matches for them all, and he took Thirty Daughters out of other Fami∣lies to be Wives for his Thirty Sons, and so to live with them in their Father's Fa∣mily. And,
N. B. Thus on both hands, the Husband went not to the Wife, but the Wife ment to the Husband, as to her Lord and Head.
Page 139 N. B. And thus likewise, the Man misseth his Rib, so maketh out to recover it; and the Woman (made of the Rib taken out of Man's side) inclineth to be in her old place again, un∣der the Man's Arm, or Wing; therefore an Husband is call'd a Rest for the Woman, Ruth 3.1. And hence arises that Natural Propensity in most People to a Marriage Ʋnion, both in Males and in Females of Mankind, in all Ages, &c.
Secondly, The next Successor was Edon, of whom nothing is recorded, save that he Judged Israel Ten Years, ver. 11, 12. maintaining the purity of God's true Worship, and administring Justice among the People in those peaceable times, and therefore is he thought worthy to be reckon'd among the Judges, not Dying in his Iniquity for not having done good among his People, Ezek. 18.18.
N. B. Only Samson's Birth is supposed to be about the beginning of Elon's Judgeship, God then being about to raise up a Remedy against Israel's Malady, by the Oppressing Philistines, whose Forty Years Oppression of Israel probably began about this time. And,
Thirdly, After Ibzan the Tenth Judge, and after Elon the Eleventh Judge, succeeds Abdon the Twelth Judge, who Judged Israel Eight Years, ver 13, 14, 15. where he hath a most Renowned Character for his Numerous Sons and Nephews, the Noble Num∣ber of Seventy.
N. B. Enow to make up a whole Sanhedrim, and himself the Judge: These are all said to ride upon Seventy Ass-Colts, to set forth their Gallantry and Grandeur, which at least argueth, that this Abdon was a Man both of a vast Estate, and of a most high Honour; in whom the Ephraimites (himself being of Ephraim) began to recover them∣selves from that low Estate into which they had been reduced by Jephtah, &c. So Jo∣seph's Glory shone forth again in him, as it had done in Joshua, &c.
