Matthew Poole and continuators on Judges 11:9

9 ¶ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head ?

If you recall me from this place where I am now setled, to the place whence I was Expelled.

Will you really make good this Promise? Iephthah was so sollicitous in this case, either from his Zeal for the publick Good, which required that he should be so; or from the Law of Self-Preservation, that he might secure himself from his Brethren; whose ill-will he had experienced, and whose iniuries he could not prevent, if, after he had served their ends, he had been reduced to his private capacity; or, there might be some Tincture of Ambition in him; for which God therefore severely, though paternally, chastiseth him, as we see afterwards.