So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Soon he had a band of worthless rebels following him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
- KJV Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
- BSB So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
- NKJV Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.
- NASB So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless men gathered around Jephthah, and they went wherever he did.
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
Jephthah flees to Tob, where a band of outlaws gathers around him. The rejected son becomes a leader of fighting men.
Overview
Exiled, Jephthah settles in Tob and attracts a company of restless men who follow his lead. There he hones the military reputation that Gilead will later need. God is quietly preparing his deliverer in obscurity, much as he prepared David in his outlaw years, working through hardship for his redemptive ends.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Judg 9:4They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.
- 1 Sam 22:2Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men.
- Job 30:1–10“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
- 2 Sam 10:6When the children of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.
- 2 Sam 10:8The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate. The Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.
- 1 Sam 27:2David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
- Acts 17:5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
- 1 Sam 30:22–24Then all the wicked men and base fellows, of those who went with David, answered and said, “Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give them anything of the plunder that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them away, and depart.”
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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 11:3 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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