Judges Chapter 12
After Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, the Ephraimites were none too happy with him, so they told him so. After all, it was the second time now that they were excluded from the battlefield. Apparently they didn’t answer the call fast enough or something. Well, this turned a bit stabby, I would say.
5Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 6they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty‐two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 383). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
After Jephthah judged Israel for six years, he died and was buried at Gilead. He was followed by Ibzan who had thirty sons and thirty daughters who, if I read this accurately, he traded to another clan for thirty girls for his sons. This sounds like a movie, but with fewer brides and brothers. Then Elon (not that one) judged and died. Then Abdon ruled and…
14He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys; he judged Israel eight years.
Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 383). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Somehow I picture all these sons and grandsons on donkeys 24/7, never dismounting and walking in lockstep. I am looking at articles about humor in the Bible, because there’s has to be some in here, although it’s probably only funny if you were there. Anyway, that’s all for Chapter 12. The next few chapters deal with one of the more famous characters in this book…Hallelujah!
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