THE BOOK OF JUDGES

 

Judges Chapter 11

1 ¶ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and Gilead was his father: but he was the son of a prostitute.

2 And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, saying to him, You shall not inherit our father’s house; for you are the son of a whore.

3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and worthless men gathered around Jephthah, and went on raids with him.

4 ¶ Now in time it happened, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

5 And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

6 And they said to Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? why have you come to me now when you are in distress?

8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is why we have turned back to you now, that you may go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be chief over us and all the inhabitants of Gilead.

9 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them over to me, shall I be your head?

10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not do what you have said.

11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah repeated all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.

12 ¶ And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you have come against me to fight in my land?

13 And the king of the children of Ammon replied to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to Jabbok, and to the Jordan: therefore restore those lands peaceably.

14 And Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the children of Ammon:

15 And said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab, or the land of the children of Ammon:

16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness to the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;

17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray you, pass through your land: but the king of Edom would not hear of it. Likewise they sent to the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel remained at Kadesh.

18 Then they traveled through the desert, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched camp on the other side of the Arnon, but did not come within the border of Moab: for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

19 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land into my country.

20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory: so Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched camp in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

21 And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them: so Israel took posession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

22 And they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the desert even to the Jordan.

23 Since the LORD God of Israel has driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, should you occupy the territory?

24 Will you not possess the land which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? Likewise we will possess the land of all whom the LORD our God drives out before us.

25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,

26 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the coasts of Arnon, for three hundred years? why did you not recover them during that time?

27 Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to make war against me: may the LORD the Judge decide this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

28 However the king of the children of Ammon did not listen to the message that Jephthah sent to him.

29 ¶ Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed on to Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed on to the children of Ammon.

30 And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will deliver the children of Ammon into my hands without fail,

31 Then whatever comes first out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the Ammonites, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.

32 Then Jephthah crossed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

33 And he struck them down from Aroer, to the vicinity of Minnith, through twenty cities, and as far as the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

34 And Jephthah returned to Mizpeh to his house, and his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

35 And when he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me: for I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot go back.

36 And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me according to what you have vowed; since the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the children of Ammon.

37 And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.

38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.

39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow which he had vowed: and she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel,

40 For the maidens of Israel to go every year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days.