The vow of the leaders of the people of Gilead that whoever delivered them from Ammon would become their chief (Judges 10:18) has now put them in an awkward position. It would now be humiliating to have to offer this title to Jephthah after they had expelled him. Their vow would also now put them in a position of violating the law, for Jephthah, being a bastard, could not become a ruler in Israel in any full and normal sense. The Gileadites are forced to offer rule to a bastard.
5 And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob.