iii. 27), he solemnly vowed to offer as a burnt-offering to Jehovah

whatever should first come forth from his house to meet him on his return from battle. The engagement took place in the forests of Gilead, and the Ammonites were utterly routed. Twenty cities, from Aroer on the Arnon to Minnith and Abel Keramim (_the Meadow of the Vineyards_), fell into the hands of the conqueror (Judg. xi. 33).

But his rash and heathenish vow cast a deep shadow on his triumphal return. As he drew near his home in Mizpeh (_the Watch-tower_) of Gilead, his daughter and only child came forth to meet him with timbrels and with dances. When the father saw her he rent his clothes, and with the utmost grief made known to her his vow, from which he declared he could not go back. But the noble maiden did not decline the awful sacrifice demanded of her. All she requested was that for two months she might be allowed to wander with her companions among the mountain-gorges of her native Gilead, and bewail her virginity. At the expiration of this period she returned to her father, and Jephthah without referring the matter to the High-priest, or remembering the strict commands of the law on this subject[213], his spirit clouded with gloomy superstition, _did with her according to his vow that he had vowed_ (Judg. xi. 39). The memory of this awful sacrifice was kept up by a yearly festival, lasting four days, during which the daughters of Israel went up into the mountains of Gilead to praise and lament the death of their heroic sister.

Jephthah, however, was not long suffered either to enjoy his triumph, or lament the fatal vow which had stained it. Like Gideon before him, he had to encounter the complaints of the proud and jealous tribe of Ephraim for not summoning them to share the glories of the late victory. In vindication of their absurd claims, they even threatened to burn his house over his head, and invaded the territory of the Gileadites, whom they taunted with being _fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and Manassites_. A second tribal war ensued, in which the men of Ephraim were thoroughly worsted. Rushing routed to the fords of the Jordan, they found them already in possession of Jephthah’s forces, who allowed none to cross that failed to pronounce the word _Shibboleth_[214]. Upwards of 42,000 revealed their Ephraimite origin by substituting the simple _s_ for _sh_, and were massacred. The supreme authority, for which he had covenanted, Jephthah only lived to enjoy for 6 years, when he died, and was buried in one of the cities of his native land (Judg. xii. 1–7).

After him other and obscurer judges rose to display the growing tendency towards hereditary monarchy. Thus IBZAN of Bethlehem in Zebulun judged, at least north-western Israel, for 7 years, and conferred a portion of his dignity on his 30 sons and 30 daughters; ELON of the same tribe ruled for 10 years; and after him ABDON, of Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, about 6 miles from Shechem, exercised the supremacy for 8 years, and was succeeded in a portion of his almost regal honours by his numerous children (Judg. xii. 8–14).