What does Judges 11:6 mean?
The leaders of Gilead have left their territory on a recruiting mission. They need an experienced military leader to direct their people in the fight against invading Ammonites. They've come to the region of Tob, perhaps not far from Gilead, to ask an unlikely candidate to take that role. Both the trip and their intended target are signs of desperation. With the Ammonites beginning to attack (Judges 11:4), they seem to have no choice but to beg an exiled bandit leader for help.Jephthah's experience is as the leader of a band of "worthless" men who likely rob and pillage for a living (Judges 9:4; 11:3). Further, the leaders of Gilead were complicit in chasing Jephthah out of Gilead in the first place, along with his own brothers (Judges 11:1–2). Jephthah's initial response will show he has not forgotten this fact (Judges 11:7).
Judges 11:1–11 introduces Jephthah as the unlikely answer to the dilemma of the previous chapter (Judges 10:17–18). Jephthah is a warrior called to lead Gilead against the Ammonites. Though he had been driven from Gilead by his people, he agrees to return if the elders will make him their leader.
A man named Jephthah is driven away from his home in Gilead by jealous brothers. He settles in Tob, where he becomes warrior chief of a criminal band. Gilead's elders later recruit Jephthah to lead the fight against their Ammonite oppressors. After a failed negotiation attempt, Jephthah vows to make a burnt offering to the Lord of whatever comes to meet him if God gives him victory over the Ammonites. Israel thoroughly defeats Ammon, and Jephthah's daughter, his only child, greets him. Jephthah carries out his vow after his daughter grieves never marrying or having children.
