The king of Ammon lied to Jephthah that the Ammonites owned the land, but Jephthah corrected him, telling him that the Amorites owned the land and were dispossessed of it by Israel, at God’s command [Jdg 11:12-27].
Jephthah was righteous to keep his vow, even though it hurt him to do so [Jdg 11:30-40; Psa 15:4; Ecc 5:1-6].
Jephthah’s daughter was also righteous, as she honoured her father, and submitted herself for his vow to be fulfilled
The Ephraimites, just like the king of Ammon accused Jephthah falsely. They accused Jephthah of not calling them to fight with him against Israel’s enemies, when he in fact did [Jdg 12:1-3].
Jephthah’s war against the Ephraimites was a way of disciplining them against cutting off the Gileadites from God’s people. The elders of Israel in the time of Moses ensured that Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh who inherited
land on the other side of the Jordan were a part of the people of Israel, despite being separated by a river. The slander of the Ephraimites in calling the Gileadites “renegades” was an accusation that had the potential to delegitimize
those on the other side of the Jordan, thus undoing the works of their fathers. Jephthah was not wrong to meet them in battle.
Note that the scriptures say that Jephthah went out to war against them BECAUSE they claimed the Gileadites were fugitives from Israel [Jdg 12:4].
The Angel of Yahweh let Manoah’s wife know she was barren, so that she would know that the child she would conceive was a miracle [Jdg 13:3].
The Angel told her that her child would be a Nazirite. In retelling the encounter to her husband Manoah, she said the child she would have, was to be a Nazirite till the end of his life [Jdg 13:7]. She did not add to the word of God. It is
more plausible that the author of the book of Judges did not report the Angel’s full words when he recorded the Angel speaking to Manoah’s wife but did so when recording the retelling of the encounter to Manoah.
This is not uncommon in Scriptures. Eve, when responding to the serpent’s questions says God told them not to eat of the tree, or to “touch it”, but in the record of God telling it to Adam, the “don’t touch it”
was not mentioned.
An interesting parallel exists between both stories. The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a Nazirite – a tree that was not to be touched.