Judges 11:7-17
7
But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father's house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?"
8
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Nevertheless, we have now turned back to you, so that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and become head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
9
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head."
10
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The Lord will be witness between us; we will surely do as you say."
11
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.
12
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, "What is there between you and me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?"
13
The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably."
14
Once again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites
15
and said to him: "Thus says Jephthah: Israel 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 to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
17
Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Let us pass through your land'; but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
(New Revised Standard Bible Version Online)
