Judges 11:12–28

¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” ¹³And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, ^m“Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the ⁿArnon to the ^oJabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” ¹⁴Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: ^pIsrael did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, ¹⁶but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness ^qto the Red Sea and ^rcame to Kadesh. ^17sIsrael then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ ^tbut the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel ^uremained at Kadesh.

¹⁸“Then they journeyed through the wilderness and ^vwent around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and ^warrived on the east side of the land of Moab and ^xcamped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. ^19yIsrael then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’ ²⁰but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. ²¹And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. ²²And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. ²³So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? ²⁴Will you not possess what ^zChemosh your god gives you to possess? ^aAnd all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. ²⁵Now are you any better than ^bBalak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? ²⁶While Israel lived ^cin Heshbon and its villages, and ^din Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time? ²⁷I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. ^eThe Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” ²⁸But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.