---
title: Judges 11:12
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/judges-11-12/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/judges-11-12.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Judges 11:12
testament: OT
section: History
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Judges 11:12

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Jephthah then sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying: 'What do you have against me that you have come to attack my land?'"

## JW Usage

Witnesses use the Jephthah narrative for examples of faithfulness to Jehovah's name, and 11:12 is rarely deployed independently in JW teaching. The Hebrew idiom in this verse — "What have I to do with thee" — is not flagged as relevant to the Cana episode in John 2:4, leaving Witnesses without the Old Testament context that decides the meaning of Jesus' words to Mary.

## Protestant Usage

This verse is one of five Old Testament occurrences of the Hebrew idiom "mah-li va-lak" — literally "what to me and to thee?" Jephthah's messengers say it to the king of the Ammonites: not "what business of yours is mine?" but "we have no quarrel in common; why are you attacking?" The same idiom appears at 2 Samuel 16:10 (David to the sons of Zeruiah), 1 Kings 17:18 (the widow to Elijah), 2 Kings 3:13 (Elisha to the king of Israel), and 2 Chronicles 35:21 (Neco to Josiah). In every case the idiom signals distance of intent or non-alignment of agenda — not contempt or rejection. When Jesus uses the same idiom to his mother in John 2:4 ("ti emoi kai soi, gynai"), the Old Testament background is decisive. He is not rebuking her; he is signalling that his messianic timing is not set by her social cue. The verse Watchtower readers seldom encounter is the verse that resolves the verse Watchtower readers most often misread.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders the Hebrew idiom here as "What do you have against me that you have come to attack my land?" — a contextual paraphrase rather than the literal "What have I to do with thee?" The same idiom in John 2:4 is rendered "Woman, why is that of concern to me and to you" — different paraphrase, different effect. The cumulative consequence is that a reader comparing the NWT renderings at Judges 11:12 and John 2:4 may not recognise the same Hebrew idiom underneath, and so may miss the parallel that decides the reading of Cana.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Theotokos Is About Jesus, Not About Mary](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/mary-theotokos-christological-fence.md) — Luke 1:43 / John 1:14 / Colossians 2:9 [Deity of Christ]