11 Now Yiftah (Jephthah) the Giladi was a fierce warrior, but he was a prostitute’s son and his father was Gilead. 2 Gilead’s wife also gave birth to sons for him, and when those sons of the wife grew up, they drove Yiftah out and told him, “You won’t get any inheritance from our father’s estate because you’re a son of another woman.” 3 So Yiftah fled from the presence of his half-brothers and he settled in the Tov region. Unprincipled men associated around Yiftah and went around with him.

4 Some time later, the Amonim battled against Yisrael (Israel). 5 and that was when the elders of Gilead went to summon Yiftah from the Tov region. 6 Then requested Yiftah, “Come and be our commander so we can fight against the Amonim.”

7 “Don’t you all hate me? Yiftah asked them. “Didn’t you yourselves drive me out of my father’s house? So why have you all come to me now when you have troubles?”

8 “Well, true,” the Gilead elders replied, “But now we’ve turned back to you. So join with us and fight against the Amonim, and you’ll become commander over all of who lives in Gilead.”

9 “If you bring me back to fight against the Amonim,” Yiftah asked them, “and if Yahweh helps me defeat them, is it correct that I’ll actually become your leader?”

10 “Yahweh will be a witness between us,” the Gilead elders responded, “that we’ll most certainly do what you just said.” 11 So Yiftah went with the Gilead elders, and the people set him as commander and leader over themselves. (Yiftah had spoken all those words before Yahweh at Mitspah.)

12 Then Yiftah sent messengers to the Amoni king, demanding, “What’s happened with respect to me and to you, that you’ve come against me to fight over my land?”

13 The Amoni king responded to Yiftah’s messengers, “Because the Israelis seized my land when they came out of Mitsrayim (Egypt). It went from the Arnon river up to the Yabok river, and over to the Yarden (Jordan) river. Now return the land peaceably.”

14 Then Yiftah sent messengers back to the Amoni king 15 to tell him, “Yiftah wants you to know that Yisrael (Israel) didn’t take land from Moav (Moab) nor from you Amonim. 16 However in their coming up from Mitsrayim, Yisrael went through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea until arriving at Kadesh. 17 When Yisrael sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please may we pass through your land,’ the king of Edom wouldn’t listen.[ref] Yisrael likewise sent to the king of Moav, but he wasn’t willing either, so Yisrael stayed at Kadesh. 18 Then we went through the wilderness and turned away from the land of Edom[ref] and the land of Moav, then went the long way around the eastern border of Moav. They camped on the other side of the Arnon river, but they didn’t go within Moav’s borders, because the Arnon was the border of Moav. 19 Yisrael sent messengers to the Amori King Sihon, the king of Heshbon and asked him, ‘Please, let us pass through your land as far as our place.’[ref] 20 But King Sihon didn’t trust Yisrael passing through within his border, so he assembled all of his people together and they camped at Yahats, and he battled with Yisrael. 21 Then Yisrael’s god, Yahweh, handed King Sihon and all his people over to Yisrael and we defeated them. Thus Yisrael took possession of all of the land of the Amorim inhabiting that region—22 everything within the Amori territory from the Arnon river to the Yabok, and from the wilderness as far as the Yarden (Jordan). 23 So since it was Yisrael’s god Yahweh that expelled the Amorim out of the presence of his people Yisrael, do you actually think that you can take it now? 24 Wouldn’t you take possession if your god Kemosh, allowed you to? So too all that our god Yahweh has dispossessed ahead of us, we’ll possess that. 25 Are you really better now than Tsipor’s son, King Balak of Moav?[ref] Did he dare contend with Yisrael or did he ever wage war against them? 26 Yisrael lived in Heshbon and in its villages for three hundred years, and in Aroer and in its villages, and in all the cities that are along the banks of the Arnon—so why didn’t you repossess them during that time? 27 I haven’t done anything wrong to you, but you’re doing wrong in dealing with me by fighting against me. Yahweh, the judge, will decide today between the Israelis and the Amonim.” 28 But the Amoni king didn’t take any notice of Yiftah’s message to him.

29 Then Yahweh’s spirit empowered Yiftah (Jephthah), and he passed through the Gilead and Menasheh (Manasseh), and through Mitspah of Gilead, and from there he passed through the Amoni region, 30 and he made a promise to Yahweh, “If you really give me victory over the Amonim, 31 then whoever’s the first person to come out of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the battle against the Amonim, that person will belong to Yahweh, and I will offer him up as a whole burnt offering.” 32 So Yiftah went to the Amoni territory to fight against them, and Yahweh enabled them to defeat them. 33 Then he attacked them from Aroer and as far as the entrance to Minit, twenty cities, and then up to Avel-Keramim, slaughtering a huge number. So the Amonim were subdued by the presence of the Israelis.