JEPHSON, ROBERT (1736-1803), British dramatist, was born in Ireland. After serving for some years in the British army, he retired with the rank of captain, and lived in England, where he was the friend of Garrick, Reynolds, Goldsmith, Johnson, Burke, Burney and Charles Townshend. His appointment as master of the horse to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland took him back to Dublin. He published, in the _Mercury_ newspaper a series of articles in defence of the lord-lieutenant's administration which were afterwards collected and issued in book form under the title of _The Bachelor, or Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe_. A pension of £300, afterwards doubled, was granted him, and he held his appointment under twelve succeeding viceroys. From 1775 he was engaged in the writing of plays. Among others, his tragedy _Braganza_ was successfully performed at Drury Lane in 1775, _Conspiracy_ in 1796, _The Law of Lombardy_ in 1779, and _The Count of Narbonne_ at Covent Garden in 1781. In 1794 he published an heroic poem _Roman Portraits_, and _The Confessions of Jacques Baptiste Couteau_, a satire on the excesses of the French Revolution. He died at Blackrock, near Dublin, on the 31st of May 1803.
JEPHTHAH, one of the judges of Israel, in the Bible, was an illegitimate son of Gilead, and, being expelled from his father's house by his lawful brethren, took refuge in the Syrian land of Tob, where he gathered around him a powerful band of homeless men like himself. The Ammonites pressing hard on his countrymen, the elders of Gilead called for his help, which he consented to give on condition that in the event of victory he should be made their head (Judg. xi. 1-xii. 7). His name is best known in history and literature in connexion with his vow, which led to the sacrifice of his daughter on his successful return. The reluctance shown by many writers in accepting the plain sense of the narrative on this point proceeds to a large extent on unwarranted assumptions as to the stage of ethical development which had been reached in Israel in the period of the judges, or at the time when the narrative took shape. The annual lamentation of the women for her death suggests a mythical origin (see Adonis). Attached to the narrative is an account of a quarrel between Jephthah and the Ephraimites. The latter were defeated, and their retreat was cut off by the Gileadites, who had seized the fords of the Jordan. As the fugitives attempted to cross they were bidden to say "shibboleth" ("flood" or "ear of corn"), and those who said "sibboleth" (the Ephraimites apparently being unused to _sh_), were at once put to death. In this way 42,000 of the tribe were killed.[1]