Judges 10–11

Tola

10After Abimelech’s death Tola, the son of Puah and grandson of Dodo, came to free Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ²He was Israel’s leader for 23 years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir.

Jair

³After Tola came Jair from Gilead. He led Israel for 22 years. ⁴He had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys. They had 30 cities in the land of Gilead, which are still called the villages of Jair. ⁵Jair died and was buried at Kamon.

Jephthah

⁶Once again the Israelites sinned against the Lord by worshipping the Baals and the Astartes, as well as the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of Ammon, and of Philistia. They abandoned the Lord and stopped worshipping him. ⁷So the Lord became angry with the Israelites, and let the Philistines and the Ammonites conquer them. ⁸For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the River Jordan in Gilead. ⁹The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

¹⁰Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord and said, “We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshipped the Baals.”

¹¹The Lord gave them this answer: “The Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, ¹²the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you in the past, and you cried out to me. Did I not save you from them? ¹³But you still left me and worshipped other gods, so I am not going to rescue you again. ¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them rescue you when you get into trouble.”

¹⁵But the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do whatever you like, but please, save us today.” ¹⁶So they got rid of their foreign gods and worshipped the Lord; and he became troubled over Israel’s distress.

¹⁷Then the Ammonite army prepared for battle and made camp in Gilead. The people of Israel came together and camped at Mizpah in Gilead. ¹⁸There the people and the leaders of the Israelite tribes asked one another, “Who will lead the fight against the Ammonites? Whoever does will be the leader of everyone in Gilead.”

11Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of a prostitute. His father Gilead ²had other sons by his wife, and when they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home. They said to him, “You will not inherit anything from our father; you are the son of another woman.” ³Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men, and they went round with him.

⁴It was some time later that the Ammonites went to war against Israel. ⁵When this happened, the leaders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. ⁶They said, “Come and lead us, so that we can fight the Ammonites.”

⁷But Jephthah answered, “You hated me so much that you forced me to leave my father’s house. Why come to me now that you’re in trouble?”

⁸They said to Jephthah, “We are turning to you now because we want you to go with us and fight the Ammonites and lead all the people of Gilead.”

⁹Jephthah said to them, “If you take me back home to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives me victory, I will be your ruler.”

¹⁰They replied, “We agree. The Lord is our witness.” ¹¹So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and leader. Jephthah stated his terms at Mizpah in the presence of the Lord.

¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon to say, “What is your quarrel with us? Why have you invaded our country?”

¹³The king of Ammon answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they took away my land from the River Arnon to the River Jabbok and the River Jordan. Now you must give it back peacefully.”

¹⁴Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon ¹⁵with this answer: “It is not true that Israel took away the land of Moab or the land of Ammon. ¹⁶This is what happened: when the Israelites left Egypt, they went through the desert to the Gulf of Aqaba and came to Kadesh. ^17*Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but neither would he let them go through his land. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh. ^18*Then they went on through the desert, going round the land of Edom and the land of Moab until they came to the east side of Moab, on the other side of the River Arnon. They made camp there, but they did not cross the Arnon because it was the boundary of Moab. ^19*Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land. ^20*But Sihon would not let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, made camp at Jahaz, and attacked Israel. ^21*But the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country. ^22*They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. ²³So it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites. ²⁴Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the Lord, our God, has given us. ^25*Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us? ²⁶For three hundred years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns round them, and all the cities on the banks of the River Arnon. Why haven’t you taken them back in all this time? ²⁷No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The Lord is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” ²⁸But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.

²⁹Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. ³⁰Jephthah promised the Lord: “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, ³¹I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”

³²So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. ³³He struck at them from Aroer to the area round Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.

Jephthah’s Daughter

³⁴When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child. ^35*When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”

³⁶She said to him, “If you have made a promise to the Lord, do what you said you would do to me, since the Lord has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.” ³⁷But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.” ³⁸He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless. ³⁹After two months she came back to her father. He did what he had promised the Lord, and she died still a virgin.

This was the origin of the custom in Israel ⁴⁰that the young women would go away for four days every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead.