What does Judges 12:11 Mean?

Context Summary

In this second war, Jephthah showed the same conciliatory spirit as he had showed to Ammon. He parleyed sensibly and courteously before he went into the conflict. A great many Christians are less Christian than this. They ignore Christ's strict injunction, Matthew 18:15. Ephraim had acted in the same manner to Gideon, Judges 8:1. In each case that tribe wanted to retain its primacy without the sacrifice which leadership involves; and it was angry when deliverance had arisen from another source. Leadership must be won, not inherited. Ephraim, therefore, was clearly in the wrong; and when her troops, which had crossed the Jordan into Gilead, were hurled back, the slaughter at the ford fell as a national judgment. The omission of a letter in their speech betrayed them. Alas, that Christians have martyred their fellows for even less!

Jephthah died soon after. Probably he died, not of age nor the brunt of war, but of a broken heart. The sweet voice of his child was always calling him. But the Spirit of God wrote on his memorial tablet-"By faith Jephthah." [source]

Chapter Summary: Judges 12

¹  The Ephraimites, quarrelling with Jephthah, are slain by the Gileadites
⁷  Jephthah dies
⁸  Ibzan, who had thirty sons, and thirty daughters
¹¹  and Elon
¹³  and Abdon, who had forty sons, and thirty nephews, judge Israel