Judges 11–12

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.

CHAPTER 12

Jephthah Fights Ephraim

¹Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed ¹to Zaphon and ^asaid to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon, but did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you.”

²Then Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon. And I cried out to you, but you did not save me from their hand.

³“And I saw that you would not save me, so I ^1atook my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and Yahweh gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

⁴Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim down because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.”

⁵And the Gileadites ^acaptured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

⁶then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not ¹pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim.

⁷And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon Judge Israel

⁸Then Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him.

⁹And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he ¹gave in marriage outside the family, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.

¹⁰Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹Then Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel after him; and he judged Israel ten years.

¹²And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel after him.

¹⁴And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys; and he judged Israel eight years.

¹⁵Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.