Judges 11
Jephthah delivers the Israelites
1 Then Jephthah the Gileadite was brave and valiant, but the son of a prostitute: but Gilead had begotten Jephthah.
2 Gilead's wife also gave him children, and when this woman's children were already great, they repelled Jephthah and said to him, "You shall not inherit in our father's house, because you are the son of another woman."
3 Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and light men gathered with Jephthah, and went out with him.
4 And it came to pass that, after a few days, the children of Ammon fought against Israel.
5 So it came to pass, as the children of Ammon fought against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to seek Jephthah from the land of Tob.
6 And they said to Jephthah, Come, and be our head: that we may fight against the children of Ammon.
7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not bore me and repel me from my father's house? why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?
8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore we return to you, that he may come with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9 Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me back to fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shows me before me, then will I be your head?"
10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord will be a witness among us, and we will do it according to your word.
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over him: and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What is between you and me, who came to me to fight against my land?
13 And the king of the children of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel went out of Egypt, he took my land, from Arnon to Jabbok, and even to the Jordan;
14 But Jephthah went on to send messengers to the king of the children of Ammon,
15 Saying to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take either the land of the Moabites or the land of the children of Ammon;
16 For when Israel came up from Egypt, she walked through the desert to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh.
17 And Israel sent messengers to the king of the Edomites, saying, I beg you to let me pass through your land. But the king of the Edomites did not listen to him. He also sent to the king of Moab, who also did not want to: and so Israel stayed in Kadesh.
18 Then he went through the desert and surrounded the land of the Edomites and the land of the Moabites, and came from the rising of the sun to the land of the Moabites, and they took refuge beyond Arnon; but they did not enter the limits of the Moabites, because Arnon is the limit of the Moabites.
19 But Israel sent messengers to Seon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon: and Israel said to him, Leave us, I beg you to pass through your land to my place.
20 But Seon did not trust Israel to pass over its borders; before, he gathered all his people together, and they camped at Jasa, and fought against Isrrael.
21 And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Seon with all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: and Israel inherited all the land of the Amorites that dwelt in that land.
22 And by inheritance they took all the borders of the Amorites, from Arnon to Jabbok, and from the desert to the Jordan.
23 So the Lord God of Israel dispossessed the Amorites before his people Israel: and would you possess them?
24 Would you not possess the one that Camós, your god, dispossessed before you? so we will all possess when the Lord our God dispossesses us before us.
25 Now why are you even better than Balak son of Zipor, king of the Moabites? did he ever contend with Israel, or did he ever fight against it?
26 While Israel lived three hundred years in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, in all the cities that are along Arnon, why did you not recover it at that time?
27 Nor have I sinned against you! but you use me badly to fight against me: the Lord, who is a judge, judges today among the children of Israel and among the children of Ammon.
28 but the king of the children of Ammon did not heed the words of Jephthah, who sent them.
29 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and passed through him through Gilead and Manasseh: because he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead to the children of Ammon.
30 And Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord and said, If you give me the children of Ammon in my hand,
31 Whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me, and I return from the children of Ammon in peace, it will be the Lord's, and I will offer it as a burnt offering.
32 So Jephthah spent the sons of Ammon fighting against them: and the Lord gave them into his hand.
33 And he smote them with great slaughter, from Aroer to Minite, around cities, and even to Abel-Cheramim; so the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34 So Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold, his daughter went out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was the only one; he had no other son and no daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, Ah! my daughter, you have killed me a lot, and you are among those who disturb me! because I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I will not go back.
36 And she said to him, My father, have you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me as it came out of your mouth: for the Lord avenged you on your enemies, the children of Ammon.
37 He said to his father, "Do this to me. Leave me for two months to go and go down the hills and weep for my virginity, me and my companions."
38 And he said, Go. And he let her go for two months: then she left with her companions, and wept her virginity over the mountains.
39 And it came to pass that, after two months, she returned to her father, who fulfilled his vow in her that he had voted: and he knew no man; and from here custom came in Israel,
40 That the daughters of Israel went from year to year to mourn the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, for four days a year.