1. Judges 11:29 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is significant about the threefold use of “to pass”?

Judges 11:29 (ESV)

29 Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.

This threefold use (with a fourth in Judges 11:32) emphasizes the urgency in Jephthah’s movements, and it serves to link the endowment of the Spirit with divine victory. The verb can be variously translated here, to get a sense of Jephthah’s continuous purposeful movement: Jephthah passes through, passes on, advances, and goes on (Judges 11:32).1