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Chapter 11 records the mobilization of the Ammonites at Gilead and the preparations they made to attack Israel at Mizpah. The Israelites were in dire need of a leader. Whoever would lead their forces against Ammon would become their king. Thus enters the man who will become the 8th. Judge of Israel.
Jephthah, whose father was a Gileadite and his mother a harlot, was chased from his home by his half brothers, who were sons of his father's wife. They did not think that he should get any of his father's estate. He left Gilead and went to the Land of Tod, northeast of the Sea of Galilee. There he assembled a band of "mal-contents" and became the "Robin Hood" of his day.
About this time the Ammonites were beginning to make their move against Israel. The leaders of Gilead sent for Jephthah and made him a deal. If he would lead the forces of Israel against Ammon they would make him Commander-in-Chief and King of Israel. He accepted their offer and was commissioned at Mizpah. He immediately sent representatives to the King of Ammon to find out why they were attacking Israel. They found out it was in retribution for Israel taking their land and giving it to the Tribe of Gad. Jephthah questioned why they had waited so long since that had been 300 years ago. He suggested that they would keep whatever land their God had given them and the Ammonites could keep whatever land their god gave them. This did not please the King of Ammon and they prepared to attack.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he led the forces of Israel across Gilead and attacked the forces of Ammon. Before he attacked, he vowed to the Lord that if He would give them the victory, he would sacrifice to the Lord the first person he saw when he returned home. The Lord gave him the victory over the Ammonites.
When he returned home, his only daughter ran out to meet him. He was heart broken for he remembered his vow that he had made to the Lord. He told his daughter and she understood, but asked if she might first go up into the hills and roam for 2 months with her friends to mourn the fact that she would never marry. This became a custom in Israel; Young girls would go away for 4 days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah's daughter.
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