Judges 10–11

CHAPTER 10

Tola and Jair Judge Israel

¹Then after Abimelech died, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, ^aarose to save Israel; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

²And he judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.

³After him, Jair the Gileadite arose and judged Israel twenty-two years.

⁴And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities ¹in the land of Gilead ^athat are called ²Havvoth-jair to this day.

⁵And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

Israel Forsakes Yahweh Again

⁶Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and ^aserved the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, ^bthe gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus ^cthey forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him.

⁷So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He ^asold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon.

⁸And they shattered and smashed the sons of Israel ¹that year; for eighteen years they did this to all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan ²in Gilead in the land of the Amorites.

⁹Then the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.

Israel Cries Out to Yahweh

¹⁰And the ^asons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.”

¹¹Then Yahweh said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not save you ^afrom the Egyptians, ^bthe Amorites, ^cthe sons of Ammon, and the Philistines?

¹²“Also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites ^aoppressed you. And you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand.

¹³“Yet ^ayou have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you.

¹⁴“^aGo and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”

¹⁵Then the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, “We have sinned, so You, ^ado to us whatever seems good in Your eyes; only please deliver us this day.”

^16aSo they removed the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and ^1bHe could bear the trouble of Israel no longer.

¹⁷Then the sons of Ammon were summoned, and they camped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered together and camped in ^aMizpah.

¹⁸And the people, the princes of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

CHAPTER 11

Jephthah Delivers Israel

¹Now ^aJephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead ¹became the father of Jephthah.

²And Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”

³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of ^aTob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves ¹about Jephthah, and they went out with him.

⁴Now it happened after a while that ^athe sons of Ammon fought against Israel.

⁵So it happened that as the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob;

⁶and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.”

⁷Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “^aDid you not hate me and drive me from my father’s house? So why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”

⁸And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “For this reason we have now returned to you, that you may go with us and fight with the sons of Ammon and ^abecome head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and Yahweh gives them up ¹to me, will I become your head?”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “^aYahweh is ¹witness between us; surely we will do ²as you have said.”

¹¹Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh at ^aMizpah.

¹²And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What is between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”

¹³Then the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel ^atook away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the ^bJabbok and the Jordan; so now, return them peaceably.”

¹⁴But Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the sons of Ammon,

¹⁵and they said to him, “Thus says Jephthah, ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon.

¹⁶‘For when they came up from Egypt, and Israel ^awent through the wilderness to the ¹Red Sea and ^bcame to Kadesh,

¹⁷then Israel ^asent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let us pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. ^bAnd they also sent to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸‘Then they went through the wilderness and ^aaround the land of Edom and the land of Moab and came to the east toward the sunrise of the land of Moab, and they camped beyond the Arnon; but they ^bdid not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹‘And Israel sent ^amessengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land to our place.”

²⁰‘But Sihon did not believe Israel to allow them to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz and fought with Israel.

²¹‘Then Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they ^astruck them down; so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²²‘^aSo they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.

²³‘So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel. Are you then to possess it?

²⁴‘Do you not possess what ^aChemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever Yahweh our God has taken possession of before us, we will possess it.

²⁵‘So now are you any better than ^aBalak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?

²⁶‘^aWhile Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns and in Aroer and its towns and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them for yourself within that time?

²⁷‘I therefore have not sinned against you, but you are doing me evil by making war against me; ^amay Yahweh, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.’”

²⁸But the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words which Jephthah sent him.

Jephthah Vows a Burnt Offering

²⁹Now ^athe Spirit of Yahweh came upon Jephthah, so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon.

³⁰Then Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand,

³¹then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh gave them into his hand.

³³And he struck them with a very great slaughter from Aroer ¹to the entrance of ^aMinnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

³⁴Then Jephthah came to his house at ^aMizpah. And behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him ^bwith tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.

³⁵So it happened that when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me. But I have opened my mouth to vow to Yahweh, and ^aI cannot take it back.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to vow to Yahweh; ^ado to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”

³⁷Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may ¹go to the mountains and weep because of ^amy virginity, I and my companions.”

³⁸Then he said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her companions and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

³⁹And it happened at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she did not know a man. Thus it became a ¹custom in Israel,

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went yearly to ¹commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.