Ver. 1. Was a mighty man of valour.] Magna vi animi et corporis fuit, as Sallust saith of Catiline: He was stout and strong, hardy and able to suffer hardship, as a good soldier should do; one that had done great exploits, and had oft looked death in the face upon great adventures in the field. And he was the son of an harlot.] A bastard this was a blur to him, through the fault of his parents. The Hebrews call such a one Mamzer that is, a strange blot: the Greeks, υβριδα, a reproach. The English, in disgrace of such births call all whores harlots, from Arlett, a skinner’s daughter, on whom Robert Duke of Normandy begat our William the Conqueror. Howbeit God made choice of such a one here to be a deliverer of his people; and hath registred him among other of his worthies, famous for their faith. (Hebrews 11:32) This is for the comfort of bastards, if believers and born of God. (John 1:12,13) We read in our Chronicles of one Faustus, the son of Vortiger, who wept himself blind for the sin of his incestuous parents. And that David had good assurance that the child born of his adultery with Bathsheba went to heaven, is gathered from those words of his, “I shall go to him; he shall not return to me.”
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; and as Sir Francis Askew had of Archbishop Holgat, whom he had much molested in law when he was a country minister. “ 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. 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. Negotiat. of Card. Wolsey, p. 2. Godw., Catal., p. 625. Speed, 622.
Ver. 3. Dwelt in the land of Tob.] Or, Of the Tubiemites, as histories call it. Some think it took its name from one Tob, the possessor of it: who might be so surnamed for his goodness, as Aristides was by the Athenians surnamed Justus, and Phocion Bonus. Of Probus the Emperor it was said, Si Probi nomen non haberet, habere cognomen posset: that he was Probus or honest all over. Flav. Vopisc., in Probo.
Ver. 4. In process of time.] Heb., After days. Junius rendereth it, post annos illos, after those years, that is, those eighteen years mentioned in Judges 10:8. That the children of Ammon made war against Israel.] About which time also the Greeks made war against Troy, and after ten years took it.
Ver. 5. The elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah.] Whereunto they were necessitated: for else a bastard might not bear office, (Deuteronomy 23:2) for an admonition of chastity in regard of the infamy and contempt of such a polluted posterity. Upon a like necessity of the Catalinarian conspiracy breaking out in Rome, M. Tullius Cicero was made consul, though a new man, and none of the ancient nobility: which when it was objected unto him, he answered, Satius est meis gestis florere, quam maiorum opinione uti, &c., that it was better to be a foundation of nobility to his posterity, and a pattern of virtue, than to be famous only for his noble ancestors. Two things he said he had to support him under whatsoever crosses or obloquies of men, Optimarum artium scientiam et maximarum rerum gloriam, the knowledge of good arts, and the glory of his great acts: the one whereof should never be taken from him whilst alive; the other, no not when he was dead. Sallust. Epist. Famil., lib. vii.
Ver. 6. Come, and be our captain.] See Trapp on “Jud 11:2”.
Ver. 7. Did not ye hate me, and expel me?] It may be some of his brethren were elders, or at least they cast him out formula iuris, by an order of the elders giving judgment against him. And why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?] May not God justly say as much to most of us? we seldom seek to him till needs must. It was a trim saying and very true of General Vere to the King of Denmark, that kings cared not for soldiers until such times as their crowns hung on the one side of their head.
Ver. 8. Therefore we turn again to thee now.] We see our former oversight, and are ready to make thee amends.