Intertextuality Pair

Judges 11:15 → Deuteronomy 2:30

Allusion

Later text

Judges 11:15BSB

to tell him, "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 2:30BSB

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.

Significance

Jephthah's historical review points to Deuteronomy 2:30, where God hardened Sihon's spirit (הִקְשָׁה אֶת־רוּחוֹ, hiqshah et-rucho) and made his heart obstinate, so that Israel's conquest of his territory was divinely orchestrated. By appealing to this precedent, Jephthah argues that Israel's possession of Transjordanian land came through God's sovereign action against the Amorites, not through any seizure of Ammonite territory. The divine hardening motif, paralleling Pharaoh's hardening in Exodus, frames the conquest as YHWH's judicial act rather than Israel's imperial aggression. The Deuteronomic clause also pairs this hardened spirit with a hardened heart (וְאִמֵּץ אֶת לְבָבוֹ, ve'immetz et levavo, "and made his heart obstinate"), showing Sihon's whole inner resolve, not merely his disposition, was divinely fortified against Israel.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression — Jephthah grounds Israel's Transjordanian title in God's own hardening of Sihon's spirit and heart (Deuteronomy 2:30) at an earlier stage of the covenant story, so that the land in dispute is the deposit of YHWH's judicial act against the Amorites, not of Israelite aggression against Ammon.

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