Judges 11:1–29

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.