Judges 11:1
There was at that time Jephte the Galaadite, a most valiant man and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, and his father was Galaad.
Open Judges 11:1 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fuit illo tempore Jephte Galaadites vir fortissimus atque pugnator, filius mulieris meretricis, qui natus est de Galaad.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ Ἰεφθάε ὁ Γαλααδείτης ἐπηρμένος δυνάμει· καὶ αὐτὸς υἱὸς γυναικὸς πόρνης, ἣ ἐγέννησεν τῷ Γαλαὰδ τὸν Ἰεφθάε.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְיִפְתָּ֣ח הַגִּלְעָדִ֗י הָיָה֙ גִּבּ֣וֹר חַ֔יִל וְה֖וּא בֶּן אִשָּׁ֣ה זוֹנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד גִּלְעָ֖ד אֶת יִפְתָּֽח
Haydock's commentary
Harlot. Hebrew Zona, Josue ii. 1. It is uncertain whether she was properly a concubine, or a wife of inferior dignity. She lived with her son in the house of Galaad; (Calmet) at least the latter was in his father's house. (Haydock)
Hence Jephte complains that he had been expelled, not that he was debarred from enjoying his father's inheritance, and consequently the law was not observed in his regard. Moses makes no provision for illegitimate children, but he excludes the son of a mamzer from the church of God, Deuteronomy xxiii. 2. Some think that the mother of Jephte was of a nation with whom it was not lawful to marry. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] v. 9.) Said. (Grotius)
Seratius believes that his father was already married, when he had to do with this harlot. (Menochius)
But he might have first taken her to wife, without the usual formalities. (Drusius; Cornelius a Lapide)
It is equally uncertain whether Jephte was of the tribe of Gad or of Manasses, as both occupied the country of Galaad. Interpreters generally conclude that he was of one of these tribes, and most probably of the latter; his father also was called Galaad. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Heliodorus
8. The advice of the rhetoricians in such cases is that you should first search out the remote ancestors of the person to be eulogized and recount their exploits, and then come gradually to your hero; so as to make him more illustrious by the virtues of his forefathers, and to show either that he is a worthy successor of good men, or that he has conferred lustre upon a lineage in itself obscure. But as my duty is to sing the praises of the soul, I will not dwell upon those fleshly advantages which Nepotian for his part always despised. Nor will I boast of his family, that is of the good points belonging not to him but to others; for even those holy men Abraham and Isaac had for sons the sinners Ishmael and Esau. And on the other hand Jephthah who is reckoned by the apostle in the roll of the righteous is the son of a harlot. …