I'm Heather and I'm Susan.

Come along with us on an adventure in the book of judges.

Welcome to the club, the Bible Book Club.

In chapters 10 and 11, again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

And then, just like us sometimes, cried out to God.

This time, though, rather than God sending a judge, the Israelites chose Jephtha, the outcasts.

Before Jephtha defeats the Ammonites, he makes a foolish vow that if God gives him victory,

he will sacrifice whatever comes out of his house on his

return and lo and behold, out comes his daughter, who he definitely did not think is what was

going to be coming out of that house. He foolishly keeps the vow. Perhaps if he had not been cast

out, he would have come to know God deeply and would have never made such a vow, but that's how

history went. And then we moved on to chapter 12, where the Ephraimites got jealous again,

and they threatened Jephtha because they were left out of the battle. And Jephtha really gets mad,

and he killed a whole bunch of them. The sad irony of that is that Jephtha delivered the Israelites

from the oppression of the Ammonites by destroying them. But then he turned on a tribe of

Israelites with equal devastation. All right, we're going to continue in chapter 12 in this episode

and cover the last three minor judges, Ibsen, Elon, and Abdon, starting with Ibsen. Verse 8. After him,

Ibsen of Bethlehem led Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters. He gave his daughters away in

marriage to those outside his clan. And for his sons, he brought in 30 young women as the wives

from outside his clan.

Ibsen led Israel seven years.

Then Ibsen died and was buried in Bethlehem.

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