“The Lord is our witness,” the elders replied. “We promise to do whatever you say.”
Parallel translations
- WEB The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
- KJV And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
- BSB And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”
- NKJV And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words.”
- NASB And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us; be assured we will do as you have said.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The elders swear by the LORD as witness that they will keep their word. The agreement is sealed with a solemn oath.
Overview
Calling the LORD to witness, the elders bind themselves to honor their promise to Jephthah. Invoking God's name gives the covenant binding weight before heaven. The oath formalizes Jephthah's restoration and reminds readers that the LORD oversees the promises people make.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 42:5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.
- Gen 31:50If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”
- Jer 29:23because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.
- Gen 16:5Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you.”
- 1 Sam 12:5He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”
- 1 Sam 24:12May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you.
- Gen 31:53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
- Gen 21:23Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”
- 2 Cor 11:31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
- Exod 20:7“You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
- Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Zech 5:4I will cause it to go out,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”
- Deut 1:16I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.
- Rom 1:9For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 11:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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