Editing Jephthah (section)

{{short description|Judge of ancient Israel}}
{{About|a character in the Book of Judges| the character in Book of Genesis| Japheth | the oratorio by Handel|Jephtha (Handel)|the oratorio by Carissimi|Jephte (Carissimi)|the community in the United States|Jeptha, Kentucky|the Brazilian footballer|Jefté}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Jephthah
| image        = Jephthah-Jephte.jpg
| caption      = Portrait from ''[[Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum]]'' (1553) by [[Guillaume Rouillé]]
| native_name_lang   = Hebrew
| native_name  = יפתח
| predecessor  = [[Jair]]
| successor    = [[Ibzan]]
| spouse       = 
| father       =
| mother       =
| birth_date   =
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   =
| death_place  =
| burial_place =
}}

'''Jephthah''' (pronounced {{IPAc-en |ˈ|dʒ|ɛ|f|θ|ə|}}; {{langx|he|יִפְתָּח}}, ''Yiftāḥ'') appears in the [[Book of Judges]] as a judge who presided over [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel]] for a period of six years ({{Bibleverse||Judges|12:7|ESV}}). According to Judges, he lived in [[Gilead]]. His father's name is also given as Gilead, and, as his mother is described as a prostitute, this may indicate that his father might have been any of the men of that area.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/daughter-of-jephthah-bible | first = Karla | last = Bohmbach |date= 2009 |title= Daughter of Jephthah: Bible |website= Jewish Women's Archive}}</ref> Jephthah led the [[Israelites]] in battle against [[Ammon]] and, in exchange for defeating the Ammonites, made a [[vow]] to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. When [[Jephthah's daughter|his daughter]] was the first to come out of the house,  he immediately regretted the vow, which bound him to [[Human sacrifice|sacrifice]] his daughter to [[God]]. Jephthah carried out his vow.

Traditionally, Jephthah ranks among the [[Book of Judges#Main text|major judges]] because of the length of the biblical narrative referring to him, but his story also shares features with those of the minor judges, such as his short tenure—only six years—in office.<ref>{{cite journal |title= The "Minor Judges" – A Re-evaluation |publisher= Alan J. Hauser |journal= Journal of Biblical Literature |volume= 94|issue= 2|pages= 190–200|date= 1975 |jstor = 3265729 |last1 = Hauser |first1 = Alan J.|doi= 10.2307/3265729}}
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