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Judges 11:10

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Judges 11:10 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Judges 11:10 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/judges/11/10.

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English Translation
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “May Yahweh be hearing between us if not, according to your word, thus we do!”

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.”
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Jehovah shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    And the Elders of Gilead saide to Iphtah, The Lord be witnesse betweene vs, if we doe not according to thy wordes.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    They answered him: The Lord who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, `Jehovah is hearkening between us -- if according to thy word we do not so.'
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    And [the] elderly of Gilead say to Jephthah, “YHWH is listening between us—if we do not do so according to your word.”
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “May Yahweh be witness between us if we do not do as we say!”
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “May Yahweh be hearing between us if not, according to your word, thus we do!”
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say."
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD be a witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    “The Lord will be a witness between us,” they replied. “We'll do whatever you say.”
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: 'The LORD shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.'

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

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יִפְתָּ֑ח
Yiphtâch
H3316
“Jephthah”
Noun, Proper
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Proper
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6605

TWOT: None

Jephthah or Jiphtah = "he opens" - a son of Gilead and a concubine and the judge who defeated the Ammonites; after the victory because of a vow taken before the battle he sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering (noun proper masculine) - a city in Judah (noun proper locative)
  1. וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  2. זִקְנֵֽי zâqên H2205 “old of” Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Construct
  3. גִלְעָ֖ד Gilʻâd H1568 “Gilead” Noun, Proper
  4. אֶל ʼêl H413 “to” Preposition
  5. יְהוָ֗ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
  6. יִהְיֶ֤ה hâyâh H1961 “to be” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  7. שֹׁמֵ֨עַ֙ shâmaʻ H8085 “hearing” Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  8. בֵּֽינוֹתֵ֔ינוּ bêyn H996 “between · us” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Plural
  9. אִם ʼim H518 “if” Conjunction
  10. לֹ֥א lôʼ H3808 “not” Particle, Negative
  11. כִדְבָרְךָ֖ dâbâr H1697 “like/as · word · your” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  12. כֵּ֥ן kên H3651 “thus” Particle, Demonstrative
  13. נַעֲשֶֽׂה ʻâsâh H6213 “to do” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

14
words
14
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יִפְתָּ֑ח Jephthah H3316 occurs in 26 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 4 verbs
  • 4 nouns
  • 1 adjective
  • 2 prepositions
  • 1 conjunction
  • 2 particles

Verb forms

  • וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • יִהְיֶ֤ה Qal · Imperfect
  • שֹׁמֵ֨עַ֙ Qal · Participle Active
  • נַעֲשֶֽׂה Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 23 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 14 Hebrew tokens and 21 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

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Cross-references

14

Topical passages linked to Judges 11:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Jeremiah 42:5 Then they said to Jeremiah, 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.
  • Genesis 31:50 If you will afflict my daughters, and if you will take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you."
  • Genesis 16:5 Sarai said to Abram, "This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you."
  • Jeremiah 29:23 because they have worked folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn't command them; and I am he who knows, and am witness, says Yahweh.
  • Genesis 21:23 Now 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."
  • Genesis 31:53 The 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.
  • Exodus 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.
  • Deuteronomy 1:16 I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear [the causes] between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.
  • 1 Samuel 12:5 He said to them, Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. They said, He is witness.
  • 1 Samuel 24:12 Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.
  • Zechariah 5:4 I will cause it to go out," says Yahweh of Hosts, "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 midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones."
  • Malachi 3:5 I 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 Hosts.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forevermore, knows that I don't lie.
  • Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Judges 11:10 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ זִקְנֵֽי גִלְעָ֖ד אֶל יִפְתָּ֑ח יְהוָ֗ה יִהְיֶ֤ה שֹׁמֵ֨עַ֙ בֵּֽינוֹתֵ֔ינוּ אִם לֹ֥א כִדְבָרְךָ֖ כֵּ֥ן נַעֲשֶֽׂה

The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Judges 11:10 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον ὁ πρεσβύτερος γαλαάδ πρός ιεφθαε κύριος εἰμί ἀκούω ἀνά μέσος ἐγώ εἰ μή κατά ὁ ῥῆμα σύ οὕτως ποιέω

And the elders of Galaad said to Jephthae, The Lord be witness between us, if we shall not do according to your word.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

1

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

  1. Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
    וַאֲמַרוּ סָבֵי גִלְעָד לְיִפְתָּח מֵימְרָא דַייָ יְהֵי סָהִיד בֵּינָנָא אִם לָא כְּפִתְגָמָךְ כֵּן נַעְבֵּד:

    (no public-domain English translation for this verse)

    Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Judges 11:10 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jdg 11:10 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.

Ver. 10. The Lord be witness.] "An oath for confirmation is to men an end of all strife": {Heb 6:16} ορκος quasi ερκος, an oath is a hedge to keep men within compass of duty.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jdg 11:10-11. The Lord be witness — The Lord be a hearer; so the Hebrew word is. Whatever we speak, it concerns us to remember that God is a hearer! The people made him head, &c. — They confirmed in full assembly, by unanimous consent, what the elders, who had been sent to him, had promised. Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord — That is, before the public congregation, where God was usually and then especially present. This most probably refers to the words of the people, in making him captain and head over them, which, it is likely, Jephthah repeated with an audible voice, calling God to witness to them at the same time, that the people might look upon their promise as more solemn, and that there might be no dispute afterward about the offer which they now made to him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Hebrew, be the bearer.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

the elders of Israel said unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us--Their offer being accompanied by the most solemn oath, Jephthah intimated his acceptance of the mission, and his willingness to accompany them. But to make "assurance doubly sure," he took care that the pledge given by the deputies in Tob should be ratified in a general assembly of the people at Mizpeh; and the language of the historian, "Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord," seems to imply that his inauguration with the character and extraordinary office of judge was solemnized by prayer for the divine blessing, or some religious ceremonial.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) The Lord be witness.—Rather, be hearing (Dominus, qui haec audit ipse Mediator ac testis sit, Vulg.).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

10. witness] Note marg.; the expression only here. The invocation of Jehovah’s presence is necessary to complete a solemn agreement; cf. Gen_31:49.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah,.... Assenting to his proposal, and not only giving their word for it, but their oath:

the Lord be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words; that is, make him head over them; they appealed to the omniscient God, and called on him to be a witness of their agreement to it, and swore by him they would fulfil it; or if they did not, that the Lord would take vengeance on them for it, and punish the breach of this covenant and oath in some way or another; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord be a witness between us, &c.''

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

They confirm their promise by a solemn and sacred oath.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

10. The Lord be witness — A solemn oath and covenant.

According to thy words — We will accede to thy wish. See on Jdg_11:9.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

The Lord be witness - The Lord be an hearer: so the Hebrew word is. Whatever we speak it concerns us to remember, that God is an hearer!

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

The elders promised this on oath. "Jehovah be hearing between us," i.e., be hearer and judge of the things concerning which we are negotiating; "truly according to thy word so will we do" (לא אם, a particle used in connection with an oath).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 14 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Yiphtâch (“Jephthah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. The word Yiphtâch carries the sense “Jephthah.” How does it shape the verse?
  2. How does Joshua 15:43, which shares the word «Jephthah», read alongside this verse?
  3. The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
  4. «וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  5. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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