Judges 11:12–28

¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”

¹³The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon^m to the Jabbok,ⁿ all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”

¹⁴Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, ¹⁵saying:

“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab^o or the land of the Ammonites.^{p 16}But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea^aq and on to Kadesh.^{r 17}Then Israel sent messengers^s to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’^t but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab,^u and he refused.^v So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

¹⁸“Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom^w and Moab, passed along the eastern side^x of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon.^y They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

¹⁹“Then Israel sent messengers^z to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon,^a and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’^{b 20}Sihon, however, did not trust Israel^b to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.^c

²¹“Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, ²²capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.^d

²³“Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? ²⁴Will you not take what your god Chemosh^e gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us,^f we will possess. ²⁵Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor,^g king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them?^{h 26}For three hundred years Israel occupiedⁱ Heshbon, Aroer,^j the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? ²⁷I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge,^k decide^l the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.^m”

²⁸The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.