33 – The Final Prophecies Of Jephthah

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The Ephraimites turned on Jephthah. They turned out to be a wicked tribe and one YHVH would later remove from authority. Ephraim’s confrontation with Jephthah has many lessons for us to learn from today.

Judges 12:1  The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, “Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn’t call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire!”
Judges 12:2  Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn’t save me out of their hand.

The account of Jephthah’s battle with Ammon did not include a call to Ephraim but here we see Jephthah did ask for help from Ephraim. We know Jephthah here is telling the truth, not making this up, otherwise his reply would not have satisfied the Ephraimites. They would have protested this statement in front of any other Gileadites who might have been present if it were not true. Therefore, we know Jephthah did call for their help. He further answers them:

Judges 12:3  When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me?”

“When I saw that you didn’t save me” is a reference to the duty Ephraim had as the lead tribe to answer Jephthah’s call for help. He said he took his life in own hand when they did not answer his call BUT YHVH handed the Ammonites over to him in spite of the failure of the Ephraimites to join in the battle. The inference here is that YHVH would have handed the Ammonites to the Ephraimites if they had gone into battle.

Jephthah makes the righteous declaration that the battle against Ammon was won by YHVH. I showed last week that one of Jephthah’s righteous characteristics is that he always pointed to YHVH as Yeshua did. The Ephraimites criticized Gideon during his pursuit of the Kings of Midian but now they have escalated their rhetoric to an actual threat against a man’s life. They have threatened Jephthah in his personal home! Who doesn’t know that a man’s home is a sacred place? For the second time, they have become angry in a fit of jealousy with a man from the tribe of Manasseh for doing what they had not or were not willing to do.

The next verse tells us how they answered him with the insult, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Manasseh” when he gathered against them to battle, to fight for and defend his own home against them.

Judges 12:4  Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they [the Ephraimites] said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Manasseh.”

Jephthah had asked them, “’Why have you come to fight against me’ since it was YHVH who put the Ammonites in my hand”? Samuel recorded their answer in verse 4 saying, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Manasseh.”

This was a reference to Jephthah’s once fugitive status which had now been reversed. He was now the National Judge of Israel! The Ephraimites had come to Jephthah because he and the Gileadites of Manasseh who fought with him had shamed them. They were trying to get the glory for the victory after the battle and the only way to do that was to try to shame Jephthah and justify killing him to do it! This was all about the losing face and losing authority with their loss of face.

Furthermore, the Ephraimites were not only insulting Jephthah but they were also accusing him and the tribe of Manasseh of treason against them. It did not matter to the Ephraimites that YHVH had given the Ammonites into Jephthah’s hand. They should have been praising YHVH! Instead, they were insulting Jephthah!

Jephthah had no choice but to go to battle against another tribe of Israel because the Ephraimites were determined to have such a war! What division this was that was caused by Ephraim’s rebellion against YHVH! Rebellious brethren always cause division!

YHVH’s people are not only allowed to protect themselves, their families and their properties, but we are mandated to do so.

Exodus 22:2  If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.

Those Ephraimites had come to take Jephthah’s life and the lives of his entire household. Therefore, his reaction to have war with them is upheld in Torah.

Judges 12:5  The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. When the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No;”

Ephraim turned out to be a lazy, weak and wicked tribe during this time. It wasn’t always so. Ephraim’s Joshua had stood with Moses and he was specially anointed by YHVH to lead Israel across the Jordan river and to take the land from the Canaanite tribes. But the descendants of those first brave and valiant Ephraimites were now failing in their love for their brethren and YHVH. They had lost their first love (Jeremiah 2:2, Revelation 2:4-5) and that tribe had already grown fat and kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15) and was leading the other Israelites to be fat and kick against YHVH.

It had been Joshua, the Ephraimite, who had the Tabernacle erected at Shiloh in the middle of Ephraimite territory where it would be well protected. Now, it was largely unattended and its priesthood had become corrupt.

We will find when we study further in Judges and 1 Samuel that the Levitical priesthood had become a defacto defunct priesthood serving only an Israelite faithful remnant and not the entire nation because of the example of the Ephraimites in whose territory sat the Ark of the Covenant! The most important issue for the Ephraimites was not the safety and security of their brother, Manasseh, or any of the other tribes. Rather, it was prestige, power, authority! Going to Jephthah with evil intent only showed they were selfish and cared only about maintaining the status quo.

That the Ephraimites would threaten to burn Jephthah’s house with him in it is a sad testimony of the disunited state of Israel during that time under Ephraim’s leadership. We will find now, moving forward in the Book of Judges, that YHVH will begin the removal of the Ephraimite tribe from power. This will begin at the conception of Samson.

We have always and only been taught that Samson’s fight was with the Philistines. We have never been taught that YHVH intended to remove Ephraim from power, move the Tabernacle to Jerusalem, and set up another faithful Levitical priesthood in Jerusalem and He used the wars with the Philistines to accomplish this. The Samson’s private war with the Philistines only began the process but it continued after his death.

I have one more thing to say about Jephthah’s war with Ephraim. It is a prophecy of who will greet Yeshua on the Armageddon battlefield. Don’t think the nations are gentiles! They are but there is Abraham’s, Isaac’s and Jacob’s physical seed mixed into the nations. We no longer know who is of physical Jacob. Israel, that is, Biblical Israel, will not be fighting Yeshua at Armageddon but millions of Jacob’s physical descendants will! What a shame to have been elevated next to YHVH’s throne, above all nations of the earth, and to have thrown it all away like it meant nothing! I can tell you I will stop calling myself “Ephraimite” when people ask about my heritage. I am a Biblical Israelite who keep YHVH’s commandments and has the testimony of personally knowing Yeshua.

During the battle, many Ephraimites ran across the river into Arab territory to take refuge with the children of the east. Though having much braggadocio about having wanted to be included in the battle against the children of Ammon, the Ephraimites were actually weak warriors. Revelation 7’s list of warriors of the 144,000 leaves Ephraim out because Ephraim showed itself to be a tribe of sissies. It was the tribe of Judah who carried the bow (2 Chronicles 14:8-13, Zechariah 9:13) and heading first into battle. But Jephthah had not asked Judah for help.

Ephraim’s reputation of running from battle would be written about in the Psalms.

Psalms 78:9  The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

Ephraim continued running away from battles after Jephthah’s battle with the Ammonites. Sadly, this is the reputation Ephraim has to this day. This is why Ephraim is not included in list of the 144,000.

Now you understand why the doctrine in Judaism says Ephraim will never be able to return to Israel. The tribe of Judah regards Ephraim as cowards. troublemakers, and weak in their walk with YHVH. It was an Ephraimite, Jeroboam, whose changes to the Law and the Feast times and places ended with all of the northern tribes being thrown out of YHVH’s Kingdom into exile where they still are today!

The “Ephraimite” cowardice has a spiritual connotation we must address, and here is as good a place as any to address it. The issue of cowardice, which is an Ephraimite trait, has to do with backing away from conflict. This attitude is taught in Christianity as the righteous attitude in which we just “forgive” (without ever hearing a repentance) and without ever saying anything when someone sins against YHVH or us.

In Luke 17:1, Yeshua says it will be impossible that there will never be conflict between brethren. In verses 3 and 4, He commands us to rebuke a brother or sister when there is conflict and, if the brother/sister repents, forgive him/her.

This is commanded in Leviticus 19:17 which says: “‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

That last phrase, “not bear sin because of him”, has a 2-fold lesson. First, if we don’t confront the sin in the Body of Messiah, the congregation of Biblical Israel, we leave the entire Body/congregation open to foul corruption! Second, the connotation there also says we will bear the sin of our brother or sister that we refuse to deal with. In other words, any sin that we won’t deal with in others will boomerang back on us. Yeshua showed us how to deal with conflict in Matthew 5:23-24 and in Matthew 18:15-19. We must love each other enough to help each other know when we have sinned against YHVH or ourselves. If you try and the person won’t listen, the sin will not be yours. But if you don’t try, the sin becomes yours. It is credited to you as Leviticus 19:17  says: …”You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.”

This attitude of running from the battle, even small battles, comes straight out of the corruption and wickedness of Ephraim who ran from battles. This attitude permeates all of the northern House of Israel in Christianity. The House of Judah appears to not have absorbed this trait.

Jephthah created a way to detect Ephraimites from among the Israelites crossing eastward over the Jordan river. There was trade going on between the Israelites and 3 tribes of Israel which were east of the Jordan river, and also trade with the various tribes of the children of the east. This might also imply that some Israelites traveled to the children of the east to worship their gods.

Judges 12:6  then they said to him, “Now say ‘Shibboleth;’” and he said “Sibboleth”; for he couldn’t manage to pronounce it right: then they seized him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell.

During WW2, German soldiers sometimes identified Russian Jews by the way they pronounced the word for corn: “kookoorooza.” The Jews’ distinctive pronunciation revealed their Russian ethnicity. So it was for these men of Ephraim.

The words ‘shibboleth’ (Strong’s H7641) and ‘sibboleth’ (Strong’s H5451) mean either “flowing stream” or “ear of corn”. The Ephraimites were betrayed by their own unique dialect which tells us how little time they spent with the brethren at Shiloh.

Judges 12:7  Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in the cities of Gilead.

The time which YHVH gave to mankind to destroy the earth is 6,000 years. Jephthah’s 6 years judging Israel reflect the principle of a year for a day. This is the final prophecy of Jephthah.

Let’s now learn about the next 3 Judges of Israel.

Judges Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

Judges 12:8  After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
Judges 12:9  He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside his clan for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.
Judges 12:10  Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem.
Judges 12:11  After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.
Judges 12:12  Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
Judges 12:13  After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.
Judges 12:14  He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Israel eight years.
Judges 12:15  Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

The next 3 Judges after Jephthah were remarkably unremarkable except that they were wealthy. Abdon’s sons AND his grandsons each had his own Ferrari-donkey. This in itself is actually indicative that it was the wealthy who now are becoming the Judges, a point Samuel was likely trying to make. In the beginning, it was the righteous and valiant. Now, it’s about who has the most money running for the office of National Judge of Israel.

This brings us to some necessary information for the study of the rest of the Book of Judges.

When researching the number of years that the Judges judged Israel, I discovered it was anywhere from 180 years to 410 years. My own addition came to 410 years. No one knows exactly how many years was the time of the Judges. Some of the timelines trying to prove the length of years were amazingly detailed. One of them showed that it was exactly 336 years if you overlap the lives of several Judges. There is a problem with that, though. Some of the overlapping Judges actually have a succession like the last 3 Judges here in chapter 12 where the word “after” is used when they died. But some scholars claim these last 3 overlapped which cannot be because upon the death of the first 2 – Ibzan and Elon, we read, “after him” came the next one. There is no “after him” when Abdon died. There may be a reason for this.

Ehud had an “after” associated with his name in Judges 3:31. His successor was Shamgar. Scripture does not say anyone came “after” Shamgar. The next chapter simply launches into the account of Deborah. Scripture does not say Debroah came “after” Shamgar. It is possible, then, that Deborah and Shamgar’s Judgeships overlapped with Shamgar dying before Deborah.

After her, came Gideon but there is no “after Deborah” announcement when Gideon arose. It is also possible, then, that Deborah’s Judgeship overlapped with Gideon somewhat. The Judge after Gideon died (Judges 8:32-33) was listed as his own son, Abimelech, who had an “after” announcement (Judges 10:1). The next Judge was Tola the son of Puah from Issachar.

The timeline I mentioned earlier that shows 336 years does not match with the 369 years the Tabernacle stood in Shiloh. This is a generally accepted timeframe for the Tabernacle at Shiloh. Solomon said the Temple was built 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt (1 Kings 6:1). If we subtract 369 years of the Tabernacle at Shiloh, we arrive at 111 years. Saul reigned for 40 years and David reigned for 40 years which leaves 31 years to be accounted for.

The possible overlapping Judges indicates there was a split in the Kingdom early on, around the time of Deborah, because YHVH said the people were to choose a Judge, one.

Deuteronomy 17:9  You shall come to the priests who are Levites, and to THE JUDGE who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict.

So YHVH”s instruction was one Judge at a time. But Israel began to abandon YHVH’s Law even while Joshua was alive. It was his righteousness which restrained most of Israel from serving other gods until after he died. After that, Israel went through repeated cycles of other god worship, crying out to YHVH and repentance and then being delivered.

Now, back to Abdon. He may have overlapped, not with Jephthah, but with Samson. Furthermore, it is also probable that the lives of Samson, the High Priest Eli and Samuel overlapped. One scholar believes Abdon, Samson and Samuel were contemporaries each judging in different parts of Israel. Abdon in the northern tribes, Samson in the tribe of Dan while clobbering the Philistines and Samuel in the Judah/Benjamin areas of Israel. No one brings forth scripture for this, only parallels and scholarly opinions. But we do know that Samuel’s sons later would be Judges in their circuits throughout Israel. I can see that it is possible for Samson and Samuel to have had overlapping Judgeships during the final years of the High Priest Eli, especially if Samuel was born toward the end of Samson’s 20 years of Judging.

The reason I agree with this is because Samson so irritated the Philistines when he killed so many of them at their great big celebration that it may have been what sparked the them to attack Israel 21 miles west of Shiloh (1 Samuel 4:1). The scriptures don’t tell us WHY the Philistines attacked, only that they did. It makes sense, then, that little 10 year old Samuel (the scriptures don’t tell us anything except that he was still a child but was old enough to serve Eli in the Tabernacle (1 Samuel 3:1) knew about the aftermath of Samson’s victory over the Philistines at their great big celebration and would have then understood why the Philistines showed up just west of Shiloh. Thus, it is possible, even probable, that Samson and Samuel overlapped.

That brings us to the next study which has to do with Samson under whom YHVH said Israel would “begin” to be delivered from the Philistines. Unlike the previous Judges who won decisive battles that delivered all Israel from oppression, we will witness a shift in how YHVH handles the enemies’ oppression of His people. He will now use a long and drawn out process which went from this time, probably the last 20 years that the Tabernacle stood at Shiloh. It was 411 years from 1015 BC when scholars say 1 Samuel happened. Thus, 411 + 20 brings us to 431 until YHVH completed the destruction of the Philistines in 604 BC.

As for Abdon, the Judge who some say overlapped with Samson and Samuel, he had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts and judged Israel for eight years. That ends his honorable mention by Samuel.

The Book of Judges has 2 stories that are not chronological. They appear in chapters 17 through 21. They come at the end of the book with the account of Micah, who was an idolator, and his personal Levite whom he ordained as a household priest, and the account of another Levite whose concubine was killed by the Benjamites.

Did these chapters get out of place over the millennia by the hands of men handling them or did Samuel write the book this way? We don’t know. It is apparent, though, that Samuel wanted to illustrate the depths of depravity of the Aaronic and Levitical priesthoods and how they had fallen. Samuel also made sure his audience understood how the Ephraimites fell from their status as lead tribe.

It is no wonder the people fell so far. While it is true YHVH expects the people to keep the leadership in line as much as the leadership is supposed to keep the people in line, it did not happen that way. In Biblical Israel, the Israel which Yeshua died to restore, everyone is responsible for and accountable to everyone else no matter where the person is in the national hierarchy for no one is above any other except in the offices in which they serve. We need to remember this now, before the Kingdom comes. The people of YHVH need to start rebuking the failing leadership in the Body of Messiah. The people need to know doctrine as well as the leaders. If all the people were doing what Paul said:

Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…

…We would not have the splintering of the Body, the quarrelling, everyone doing what is right in his or her own eyes. We would all be doing what YHVH said. But alas, that takes killing the flesh and the flesh just doesn’t want to die to YHVH’s Spirit!