The OlD JePhThAh TAle IN JuDGeS 7 the mention of the Philistines in vv. 6-7; the land of the Amorites in v. 8; as well as the details in vv. 11b-12. • Possibly the reference to Gilead as the father of Jephthah in 11,1-2, and 11,11b (for both see above). • 11,12-28 aims at explaining how, when and where Israelites settled in Transjordan, in a period when this old reality was no longer apparent. This is secondary material 26, citing older accounts, e.g., 11,25-26, which depends on the account in Numbers 27. • Jephthah’s vow in 11,30-31.34-40 is post-Deuteronomistic, pos- sibly as late as hellenistic in date, influenced by the Iphigenia legend 28. In other words, this may be the hand of a second — and latest — post-Deuteronomistic author. II. The Old Tale What remains is the old North Israelite “secular 29” Jephthah tale; or better, the reflection of the original old oral tale, which was put in writing by the North Israelite author in the first half of the 8th century, without the geographical expansion introduced by this author (above). evidently, with centuries of redactions, additions and omissions, it is difficult and probably impossible to fully reconstruct the early tale. Still, in order to demonstrate my position, I would propose to read the old oral story approximately as follows (in brackets, bold italics additions that I entered in order to make the story coherent; more on this in the commentary below): [And the Ammonites pressed the inhabitants of Gilead...] Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the 26 Soggin (Judges, 211) suggested that vv. 12 and 28 may belong to the old source. For a discussion of this account, see, for instance, M. WÜST, “Die ein- schaltung in die Jiftachgeschichte. Ri 11,13-26”, Bib 56 (1975) 464-479. 27 See table in SASSON, Judges 1–12, 427-428; I. FINkelSTeIN – T.c. RöMeR, “early North Israelite ‘Memories’ on Moab”, The Pentateuch within Biblical Literature: Formation and Interaction (eds. k. SchMID et al.) (in press); on this section as representing 7-6th century Bce and perhaps later concerns, see recently e. BlOch-SMITh, “A Stratified Account of Jephthah’s Negotiations and Battle: Judges 11:12-33 from an Archaeological Perspective”, JBL 134 (2015) 291-311. 28 T.c. RöMeR, “Why Would the Deuteronomists Tell about the Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter?”, JSOT 77 (1998) 27-38; contra D. JANZeN, “Why the Deuteronomist Told about the Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter”, JSOT 29 (2005) 339-357; GROSS, Richter, 616-617. 29 GROSS, Richter, 616.