Jephthah Delivers Israel
1 Now
1Jephthah the Gileadite was
2a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
2
And Gilead's wife also 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."
3
Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of
3Tob, and
4worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.
4
After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel.
5
And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of
5Tob.
6
And they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites."
7
But 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 to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and
6be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
9
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head."
10
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah,
7"The LORD will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say."
11
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people
8made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words
9before the LORD at
10Mizpah.
12
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, "What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?"
13
And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah,
11"Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the
12Arnon to the
13Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably."
14
Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites
15
and said to him, "Thus says Jephthah:
14Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites,
16
but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness
15to the Red Sea and
16came to Kadesh.
17
17Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let us pass through your land,'
18but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel
19remained at Kadesh.
18
"Then they journeyed through the wilderness and
20went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and
21arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and
22camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.
19
23Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to our country,'
20
but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
21
And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.
22
And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
23
So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?
24
Will you not possess what
24Chemosh your god gives you to possess?
25And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.
25
Now are you any better than
26Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?
26
While Israel lived
27in Heshbon and its villages, and
28in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time?
27
I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me.
29The LORD, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon."
28
But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.