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 they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites,.... Peaceably and quietly, nor did any pretend to call their right in question, or dispute their title, or give them any disturbance:
from Arnon unto Jabbok: which was the length of the country, and the direction was from south to north, and reached from the river Arnon, the border of Moab, to the river Jabbok, the border of Ammon; so that it included no part of what was at this time in the possession of either:
and from the wilderness even unto Jordan; which was the breadth of it, and its direction was from the west to the east, reaching from the wilderness of Arabia to the river Jordan.