BRAGADAYJAH 749
The Question of Right of Ownership
Jephthah on behalf of Israel demanded that the Ammonites should peacefully
vacate the land they now possess, because they had dispossessed Israel who was
immediately in possession before them. But the Kings of Ammon and of Moab
responded by saying, “O No!” We were first in possession and you dispossessed us
by fighting against us and seizing our lands by force. So how did Jephthah reply? That we asked you to let us pass and you
refused; so the LORD our God delivered the land to us. Now is this a good enough reason to declare to
whom the land belonged? There may be
some legal issues to determine first. It is said that possession is nine tenths
of the law; and the person in possession on the face of it may have a better
title than he one seeking to dispossess. However it is also a principle of land
law that the possession had to be nec vi nec clam nec precario, that is to say
not taken by force, not by paying a fee, example a tenant, and not by stealth;
and finally if we say each had an equitable title to the land, a maxim of
Equity holds that where the equities are equal the first in time is the
stronger. So if we go back to the first part of Jephthah’s response, it would
seem that, a) the Ammonites and Moabites were first in time and b), the
Israelites took the land by force in the first place; so based on the law of
equity their claim to the lands would fail.
But the second part of Jephthah’s answer puts the whole set of issues in
a different light. According to him it
was God Who gave Israel the land, and to whom did the land belong in the first
place? The answer is clearly God. God
was the Landlord, and as such He had the right to dispossess the unruly
tenants, the nations, and give title to His people, the Israelites.