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The Book of Judges 11

11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a warrior of valor, but he was the son of a whoring woman. Now Gilead had begotten Jephthah. 2 And the wife of Gilead bore sons to him, and the sons of the wife grew up, and they drove out Jephthah and said to him, “You will not inherit in the house of our father, for you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from the face of his brothers, and he dwelled in the land of Tob. And worthless men collected themselves to Jephthah, and they went out with him.

4 Now it happened after some days that the sons of Ammon fought with Israel. 5 And it happened, when the sons of Ammon fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 And they said to Jephthah, “Come, and you shall be a commander for us so we may fight with the sons of Ammon.” 7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Do you not hate me, since you drove me from the house of my father? So why have you come to me now, when trouble is to you?” 8 Then the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we have now returned to you. So you shall come with us and fight with the sons of Ammon, and you shall be for us the head of all of the dwellers of Gilead.” 9 Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you have brought me back to fight with the sons of Ammon and Yahweh gives them over to my face, I will be the head for you.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “May Yahweh be hearing the things between us if not, according to your word, thus we do!” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and as commander. And Jephthah spoke all of his words to the face of Yahweh at Mizpah.

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What to me and to you, that you have come against me to fight in my land?” 13 And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took my land in his coming up from Egypt, from the Arnon and to the Jabbok and to the Jordan. So now return them in peace.” 14 Then Jephthah resumed and sent messengers again to the king of the sons of Ammon, 15 and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the sons of Ammon. 16 But in their coming up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds, and he came to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please may I pass through your land.” But the king of Edom did not listen. And he also sent to the king of Moab, but he did not consent. So Israel dwelled in Kadesh. 18 Then he went through the wilderness and circled the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and he went from the rising of the sun to the land of Moab. And they encamped on the other side of the Arnon, but they did not enter within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, “Please, may we pass through your land to my place?” 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel passing through his border. So Sihon assembled all of his people, and they encamped at Jahaz, and he fought with Israel. 21 Then Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all of his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all of the land of the Amorite inhabiting that land. 22 And they possessed all of the border of the Amorite, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23 And now, Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorite from the face of his people Israel. So will you possess it? 24 What Chemosh your god causes you to possess, will you not possess it? And all of what Yahweh our God has dispossessed from our face, we will possess it. 25 And now, being better, are you being better than Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Contending, did he contend with Israel, or fighting, did he fight with them? 26 In the dwelling of Israel in Heshbon and in its daughters and in Aroer and in its daughters and in all of the cities that are upon the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why then did you not deliver during that time? 27 So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by fighting with me. Yahweh, the judge, will judge today between the sons of Israel and between the sons of Ammon.’ ” 28 But the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

29 Then the Spirit of Yahweh was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed through to the sons of Ammon. 30 And Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, “If giving, you will give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31 then it shall be, the one coming out, whoever comes out of the doors of my house to greet me in my returning in peace from the sons of Ammon, that he will be to Yahweh, and I will offer him as a burnt offering.” 32 Then Jephthah passed through to the sons of Ammon to fight with them, and Yahweh gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer and to your coming to Minnith, twenty cities, and to Abel Keramim, a very great slaughter. So the sons of Ammon were subdued from the face of the sons of Israel.

34 Then Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold, his daughter was coming out to greet him with timbrels and with dances. And except her alone, there was not to him a son or daughter apart from her. 35 And it happened, as he saw her, that he tore his garments and said, “Alas, my daughter! Causing to bow, you have caused me to bow, and you are among the ones troubling me! For I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I am not able to turn back.” 36 But she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh. Do to me according to what came forth from your mouth, after what Yahweh has done for you: vengeances against your enemies, against the sons of Ammon.” 37 Then she said to her father, “May this thing be done for me. Refrain from me two months so I may go, and I will go down upon the hills and weep upon my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 And he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months. And she went, she and her companions, and she wept upon her virginity on the hills. 39 And it happened at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he did to her his vow that he had vowed. And she had not known a man. And it became a custom in Israel. 40 From days to days the daughters of Israel go to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.

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