Judges 11: Jephthah’s victory.

This chapter and most of the next are about the judge Jephthah. He was Gilead’s son by a prostitute, so Gilead’s other sons despised him, and drove him out from his homeland. He fled to the land of Tob, where he lived amongst reckless men. When the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to the land of Tob to ask if Jephthah would lead their army. At first, Jephthah challenged them, and asked why they would come to him for help after expelling him from their county. However, the elders swore by the Lord that they would accept him as their leader, so he agreed to go with them.

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon, to ask why his people were attacking Gilead. The king said that Israel had taken away their land, but Jephthah recounted to them the history of Israel’s time in the wilderness, specifically pointing out that they not made war with the nations of Canaan. The only exception was the Amorite king Sihon’s attack on Israel, in which the Israelites defended themselves and defeated the Amorites. So, Jephthah explained that Israel had not taken land from the Ammonites. But the people of Ammon did not listen, and prepared for war.

While preparing his army against the people of Ammon, Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: if He would grant Gilead victory, Jephthah would make a burnt offering of the first thing which came out from his house upon his return home. Battle ensued, and the army of Jephthah utterly defeated Ammon.

When Jephthah returned home, his daughter – his only child – came out of the house to greet him with music and dancing. He tore his clothes in despair, and told her about his vow to the Lord. His daughter told him to keep his word, and asked to be left alone for two months to lament her virginity. Then, when the time came, Jephthah carried out his vow to the Lord.

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Jephthah’s dealings with both the Ammonites and his own family show that serving the Lord leads us to seek peace, not conflict or war. His account of the Israelites’ struggles showed that his people had only defended themselves against other nations, but had not fanned the flames of war. We are to do the work of making peace in our lives, while upholding and defending what is true (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 1683).

The people of Ammon stand for knowing what is true, but then corrupting that truth to live a life based in falsities. For example, if we know the Lord regenerates us, and then tell ourselves that we no longer hold any responsibility for our eternal state, we have falsified the truth. This view completely distorts the truth: the Lord regenerates us as we work to live righteously (see Swedenborg’s work, Sacred Scripture 18[3]).

The spiritual meaning of a ‘daughter’ is an affection for spiritual truths and the life they offer. Affection is the offspring of feeling delight in truths; as we develop these affections, we learn to recognize that they come from the Lord, for he is the source of all good things (Arcana Caelestia 3336[2]).

Jephthah’s daughter was his deepest love, his greatest affection. She was a virgin, representing the spiritual qualities of purity and innocence. Her request for two months of solitude can be understood as our need to reflect during any giving to the Lord, to be sure that our intentions are pure, without any selfish expectations (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Providence 121).

18. 3. The spiritual meaning is what causes the Word to be Divinely inspired and holy in every word. People in the church say that the Word is holy, and this because Jehovah God spoke it. But because its holiness is not apparent from the letter alone, therefore someone who once doubts its holiness on that account, later finds, when he reads the Word, many things in it to confirm himself in that doubt. For he asks himself then, “Is this holy? Is this Divine?”

Therefore, to keep this kind of thinking from flowing in and prevailing among many people, and so causing the conjunction of the Lord with the church where the Word is to perish, it has pleased the Lord now to reveal the spiritual sense, in order to make known in what the holiness in the Word lies.

[2] But let examples illustrate this as well:

The Word has as it subject sometimes Egypt, sometimes Assyria, sometimes Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, Gog. Someone who does not know that the names of these entities symbolize matters relating to heaven and the church may be led astray into the error of supposing that the Word has much to say about nations and peoples and only a little relating to heaven and the church, thus much about earthly matters and little about ones having to do with heaven. On the other hand, when he know what these entities or their names symbolize, it enables him to return from error into the truth.

[3] The same is the case when a person sees in the Word its frequent mention of gardens, groves, and forests, and the trees in them, such as olives, vines, cedars, poplars, and oaks, as well as the frequent mention of lambs, sheep, goats, calves, and oxen; and also of mountains, hills, and valleys, and the springs, rivers, and waters in them; and still more of the like. Someone who knows nothing of the Word’s spiritual meaning cannot help but believe that these are the only things meant. For he does not know that gardens, groves and forests mean wisdom, understanding and knowledge; that olives, vines, cedars, poplars and oaks mean the church’s celestial, spiritual, rational, natural and sensual goodness and truth; that lambs, sheep, goats, calves and oxen mean innocence, charity, and natural affection; that mountains, hills and valleys mean the higher, lower and lowest planes of the church; and that Egypt symbolizes knowledge, Assyria reason, Edom the natural component, Moab the adulteration of goodness, the sons of Ammon the adulteration of truth, Tyre and Sidon concepts of truth and goodness, and Gog outward worship without any internal worship.

However, when a person knows this, he is able then to see that the Word deals only with matters connected with heaven, and that the earthly expressions are simply the vessels in which these are contained.

[4] But let an example from the Word illustrate this too. We read in the book of Psalms:

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters; the God of glory causes it to thunder; Jehovah is upon the great waters.... The voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars..., Jehovah shatters the cedars of Lebanon, and makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like the offspring of unicorns. The voice of Jehovah strikes like a flame of fire. The voice of Jehovah causes the wilderness to quake; (it) causes the wilderness of Kadesh to quake. The voice of Jehovah makes deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; but in His temple everyone says, “Glory!” (Psalms 29:3-9)

Someone who does not know that each and every word there is holy and Divine may say to himself, if he is a merely natural person, “What does it mean that Jehovah sits upon the waters, that He shatters cedars with His voice, that He makes them skip like a calf, and Lebanon like the offspring of unicorns, that He makes deer give birth?” And so on.

[5] That is because he does not know that in the spiritual sense these declarations describe the power of Divine truth or of the Word. For in that sense the voice of Jehovah, which in this case is thunder, means Divine truth or the Word in its power. The great waters on which Jehovah sits mean the falsities of the rational self. A calf and the offspring of unicorns mean the falsities of the natural and sensual self. A flame of fire means the affection accompanying falsity. A wilderness and the wilderness of Kadesh mean a church without any truth and one without any goodness. The deer which the voice of Jehovah causes to give birth mean gentiles possessing a natural goodness. And the forests which it strips bare mean the kinds of knowledge and concepts which the Word lays open to them. Consequently the passage says next, “in His temple everyone says, ‘Glory!’ ” which means that there are Divine truths in every constituent of the Word; for the temple symbolizes the Lord, and so also the Word, as well as heaven and the church, and glory symbolizes Divine truth.

It is apparent from this that there is no word in the passage that does not describe the Divine power of the Word against falsities of every kind in natural people, and the Divine power of reforming gentiles.