Chapter 19 Daughter welcomes father

After Gideon's death, the country of Judea fell into chaos again. Gideon married many times and left many children.Immediately after the funeral, the sons fought over the succession.One of the sons was named Abimelech, and he was very ambitious. He wanted to be king of the Jews. He thought he was qualified, but everyone didn't think so.He ran to Shechem, his mother's hometown, where he plotted to seize power.He had no money, but the people of Shechem, seeing the advantage of the success of his plan, lent him money.Abimelech used the money to hire a hitman to assassinate his brother.

One night, all Gideon's sons were killed except Jotham, the youngest, who escaped. Jotham fled to the mountains. At this time, the people of Shechem made Abimelech king and celebrated greatly. Over the next four years, Abimelech and his right-hand man Sebul secured their position and forced several cities to recognize their rule.Occasionally there was news of Jotham, the boy who used to accuse his wicked brother in the marketplace, but Abimelech did not take it to heart.He thought that Jotham was penniless and didn't listen to him, and his condemnation of his brother was just a waste of time, just adding to the jokes of others.

The happy life in Shechem was short-lived, however, for Abimelech was a proud and foolish fellow, and his subjects soon could not bear him.At the heart of the riot is a man named Caleb.In the battle, Abimelech and Zebul gained the upper hand, and Caleb and his men were besieged in a stone tower. Abimelech couldn't rush in, so he ordered to find firewood from the forest, pile it under the tower and set it on fire. Caleb and his subordinates were all burned to death. A few years later, another riot broke out in Thebes, Abimelech was again victorious, and the rioters retreated into a tower.When Abimelech piled up the firewood and triumphantly went to light the fire, a woman threw a stone from the tower, and the stone broke Abimelech's back. Unwilling to be killed by women, he asked his men to put an end to his suffering.

Before long, attempts to unite the Jewish tribes into a single kingdom failed with no luck.But fighting on the border and disputes within the ethnic group have intensified.First it was the Midianites who claimed to occupy lands in the West Bank, and then the Ammonites were ready to do so. They burned and looted many Jewish villages, and the Jews had no choice but to put aside their internal disputes and work together with the outside world.They elected Jephthah of the tribe of Manasseh as their commander. Jephthah was a man of God, and the Ammonites were soon defeated. But even in the moment of victory, the infighting among the Jews did not end, and they blamed the soldiers of the tribe of Ephraim for not arriving in time, they arrived on the battlefield when the enemy army was retreating.

The Ephraimites pleaded that they were late, and they were sorry, but there was nothing they could do, because they had to come from the other side of the river, and it was a long way.But Jephthah would not listen to the explanation nor accept the apology. He sent people to guard the fords of the Jordan River, and no one was allowed to pass through. Then surround all the people of the tribe of Ephraim. It is easy to judge whether they are Ephraimites or not.The Hebrew word for "river" is "Shibald".The tribe of Ephraim could not pronounce "show".They can only say "Xi Pa Lie".Therefore, anyone who is suspected to be Ephraim should be called "Shibalel". Forty thousand people.

Having done this, Jephthah rode home.Before defeating the Ammonites, he had sworn to Yahweh to sacrifice to Yahweh the first creature he encountered at his doorstep on his return home victorious.He expected it to be a pet dog or a horse, but his daughter rushed out the door first to meet him. Jephthah kept his oath. He burned his daughter on the altar dedicated to Yahweh, and peace once again came to the land of Israel.