Bible Strands
Judges 11:3
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jephthah’s displacement immediately after his half-brothers expel him from his father’s inheritance for being the son of another woman. He leaves Gilead for Tob following their rejection and threat of disinheritance.
The words — The verb וַ/יִּבְרַ֤ח (va/i.yiv.Rach) literally means "and he fled," while וַ/יִּֽתְלַקְּט֤וּ (va/i.yit.la.ke.Tu) means "and they gathered themselves" or "joined themselves." These terms frame Jephthah’s forced departure and the subsequent formation of his band.
The thread — This pattern of displaced or marginalized figures gathering bands of followers appears in Judges 9:4 with Abimelech’s hired worthless men and 1 Samuel 22:2 with the distressed and discontented who rallied around David.
Why it lands — The text records a political and social rupture that leaves a capable leader outside his community, requiring readers to observe how marginalized groups organize before divine intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Judges 9:4 So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.
- 1 Samuel 22:2 And all who were distressed or indebted or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
- 1 Samuel 27:2 So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.
- 2 Samuel 10:6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zoba, as well as a thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from Tob.
- 2 Samuel 10:8 The Ammonites marched out and arrayed themselves for battle at the entrance of the city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
- Job 30:1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.
- 1 Samuel 30:22 but all the wicked and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered, except for each man’s wife and children. They may take them and go.”
- Acts 17:5 The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people.