12 Now 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?”

13 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; therefore, return them peaceably now.”

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

15 and 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,

17 then 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 would not consent. 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 side 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 trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz and fought with Israel.

21 ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they 1adefeated them; 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 ‘Since now the Lord, the God of Israel, drove out 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 the Lord our God has driven out before us, we will possess it.

25 ‘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 villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?

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

28 But the king of the sons of Ammon 1disregarded the message which Jephthah sent him.