Judges 11:2

Jdg 11:2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou [art] the son of a strange woman.

Ver. 2. They thrust out Jephthah.] Little thinking that they should one day be glad to be beholden to him. It is good for great men, who now work their own wills without wit, to remember that greatness may decay, the wheel may turn, and they may have need of those they now slight; as Sir James Paulet had of Cardinal Wolsey when he came to be Lord Chancellor, whom the said Sir James had, out of humour, set by the heels when he was a poor schoolmaster; {a} and as Sir Francis Askew had of Archbishop Holgat, whom he had much molested in law when he was a country minister. {b}

“ Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere quenquam. ”

The Pope, who is the devil’s by-blow, was worthily thrust out of England A.D. 1245, as before he had been out of France and Arragon, it being said that the Pope was but like a mouse in a satchel, or a snake in a man’s bosom, &c. England had been his ass; but at length she cast her rider, and would no longer bear his burdens. {c}

For thou art the son of a strange woman.] Vulgo quaesitus, as the Latins call such: the Hebrews shatuki, from shatack, tacere, because when others are praising their parents, such must hold their peace. But Jephthah was hardly dealt with, to be put to shift for a livelihood, and to get it before he ate it.

{a} Negotiat. of Card. Wolsey, p. 2.

{b} Godw., Catal., p. 625.

{c} Speed, 622.

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.

That is, of an harlot as verse 1.

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

Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house--As there were children by the legitimate wife, the son of the secondary one was not entitled to any share of the patrimony, and the prior claim of the others was indisputable. Hence, as the brothers of Jephthah seem to have resorted to rude and violent treatment, they must have been influenced by some secret ill-will.

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

(2) They thrust out Jephthah.—This was in perfect accordance with the law (Deu_23:2-3), and with family rules and traditions. Abraham had sent the son of Hagar and the sons of Keturah to found other settlements (Gen_21:10; Gen_25:6).

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

2. And Gilead’s wife] i.e. the lawful wife in distinction from another woman (1Ch_2:26). In Jdg_11:7 it is the elders of Gilead, not his half-brothers, who drove Jephthah out of his home; the present verse seems to be an attempt to provide some account of Jephthah’s antecedents by inference from his brethren (properly his tribesmen, Jdg_14:3) in Jdg_11:3, and from Jdg_11:7.

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.

And Gilead's wife bare him sons,.... It seems that, after the birth of Jephthah, Gilead took him a lawful wife, who bore him sons:

and his wife's sons grew up; to the estate of men:

and they thrust out Jephthah: out of his father's house, his father in all likelihood being dead, or he would not have suffered it, and what follows confirms it that he was dead:

and said unto him, thou shalt not inherit in our father's house: as he might not, if the son of an harlot, or of a woman of another tribe, or of a concubine; though as Kimchi, from their Rabbins, observes, the son of such an one might, provided his mother was not an handmaid nor a stranger. And it looks as if this was not rightly done, but that Jephthah was injuriously dealt with by his brethren, of which he complains:

for thou art the son of a strange woman: or of another "woman" (e), that was not their father's lawful wife; or of a woman of another tribe, as the Targum; or of another nation, as others, prostitutes being used to go into foreign countries to get a livelihood, and hide the shame of their families; hence a strange woman, and a harlot, signified the same (f), see Jdg 11:1.

(e) "mulieris alterius", Pagninus, Montanus; "exterae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Tigurine version. (f) "Pro uxore hanc peregrinam", Terent. Audria, act 1, scen. 1. l. 118.

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

Sons. Grabe’s Septuagint determines the number to be "two." (Haydock) --- They caused the magistrates to declare that Jephte should not partake in the inheritance, ver. 7. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The Gileadite; so called, either from his father Gilead, Jos 17:1,2, or from the mountain or city of Gilead, the place of his birth or abode.

The son of an harlot, i.e. a bastard; for though such were not ordinarily to enter into the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2, yet God can dispense with his own laws, and hath sometimes done honour to base-born persons, so far, that some of them were admitted to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gilead; one of the children of that ancienter Gilead, Num 32:1; Jos 17:1.

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

2. They thrust out Jephthah — Their father, Gilead, was a man of wealth and power, and they were unwilling that the son of a strange woman and a harlot should share with them the paternal inheritance. Compare Gen_21:10; Gen_25:6. The law placed a bastard on the same footing with an Ammonite or a Moabite. Deu_23:2-3. Neither could enter the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation. Mark that he who by the law was placed in the same category with the Ammonites was called to be the conqueror of those incestuous sons of Lot.

Strange woman — Hebrew, another woman. “Other is here to be taken in a bad sense, as in the expression other gods. As those are spurious gods, so another woman is a spurious wife.” — Cassel.

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

And Gilead"s wife. Whenever Gilead lived, besides the son by the foreign harlot, whom Jephthah represented, he had sons and descendants by his legitimate wife, who claimed to be his sole heirs, and who therefore drove Jephthah from the inheritance of their father"s house. They might, as far as the language used is concerned, have been Gilead"s own sons, or they may have been his grandsons or great-grandsons, and so either the brothers or the cousins and fellow-tribesmen of Jephthah.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.