Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
So Jephthah ran away from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There, worthless men gathered around Jephthah and followed him wherever he went.
The writer is showing how Jephthah, rejected by his family, became the leader of a group of outcasts and troublemakers.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Judges, Jephthah was the illegitimate son of Gilead and a prostitute, which led his half-brothers to reject him and drive him away from their family inheritance. He fled to the land of Tob, a region east of the Jordan River, where he gathered a band of discontented or adventurous men who joined him in his exile. This event fits into the larger biblical narrative of God's use of flawed individuals as leaders during Israel's cycles of oppression and deliverance.
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