rise to two further complications and crises, the first domestic (Jephthah and his daughter, 11:34–40), and the second political (Jephthah and the Ephraimites, 12:1–6). The successive resolution of these two crises brings the narrative as a whole to its conclusion. So the subject matter of the story (what happened to Israel in the time of Jephthah) is constructed as a plot with several well-defined movements or episodes. In the exposition that follows we will refine this basic analysis of the plot