(21) The Lord God of Israel.--This is evidently a cardinal point in the mind of Jephthah. The God of Israel has decided against the gods of Ammon.

All the land of the Amorites.--All the land, therefore, which they took from the Amorites was theirs by. the immemorial law of nations, irrespective of any who had been its previous owners (Grot., De Jure Belli, 3:6, ? 7).

Verses 21, 22. - These verses are an epitome of Numbers 21:24-32. Cf. also Deuteronomy 2:33-36. The wilderness is the country lying east of Moab up to the hill country (see Judges 10:8, note). From the Amen to the Jabbok is the measurement from south to north; from the wilderness to the Jordan, from east to west.

11:12-28 One instance of the honour and respect we owe to God, as our God, is, rightly to employ what he gives us to possess. Receive it from him, use it for him, and part with it when he calls for it. The whole of this message shows that Jephthah was well acquainted with the books of Moses. His argument was clear, and his demand reasonable. Those who possess the most courageous faith, will be the most disposed for peace, and the readiest to make advances to obtain; but rapacity and ambition often cloak their designs under a plea of equity, and render peaceful endeavours of no avail.And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel,.... So that as Sihon, his people, and his country, fell into the hands of Israel through the victory the Lord gave them over him, they had a divine right to the land now in dispute:

and they smote them: destroyed him and all his people, as they were ordered to destroy the seven nations of Canaan, of which the Amorites were one, Deuteronomy 7:1,

so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country; by means of the above victory they came into the lawful and rightful possession of all the land that belonged to the Amorites, who were at that time, and none else, the inhabitants of it; and therefore the Ammonites could have no claim to it, nor was any made till now.