 1 Now Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty man of war. He was the son of a harlot. And Gilead fathered Jephthah. 2 Gilead's wife bore him sons and his wife's sons grew up and threw Jephthah out and said to him, You will not inherit 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 Tob. Worthless men gathered to Jephthah and went out with him. 4 After some time the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 5 When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah out of the land of Tob. 6 They said to Jephthah, Come and be our commander, so that we may fight with the children of Ammon. 7 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Have you not hated me and thrown me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble? 8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, For this reason we turn again to you now, so that you may go with us and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the people of Gilead. 9 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 before me, shall I be your head? 10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord is witness between us if we do not do so according to your word. 11 Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh. 12 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 The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and to Jordan. Now therefore restore those lands peaceably. 14 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon. 15 He said to him, Jephthah says, Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon. 16 But when they came up from Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh. 17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, I ask you to let me pass through your land. But the king of Edom would not listen. Then in the same way they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not either so Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18 They went along through the wilderness and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab and pitched on the other side of Arnon. But they did not come within the border of Moab, for Arnon was the border of Moab. 19 Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, Let us pass through your land to our place. 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border. But Sihon gathered all his people together and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21 The Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, who lived in that country. 22 They possessed all the borders of the Amorites, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to Jordan. 23 So now the Lord God of Israel has put out the Amorites before His people Israel, and should you possess it? 24 Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomever the Lord our God drives out from before us, we will possess them. 25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of King Zippor of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them 26 when Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are along by the borders of Arnon, for 300 years? Why then did you not deliver them in that time? 27 So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. The Lord, the Judge, will judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. 28 The king of the children of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him. 29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead passed over to the children of Ammon. 30 Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed give the children of Ammon to me, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, surely it will belong to the Lord or I will offer it up instead of a burnt offering. 32 Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them. The Lord delivered them into his hand. 33 He struck them from Aroer even until you come to Minnith, 20 cities, and to the meadow of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. So were the children of Ammon subdued before the children of Israel. 34 Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and, behold, 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 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 She said to him, my father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord. Do to me according to what has come out of your mouth, because the Lord has taken vengeance for you upon your enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 37 She said to her father, Let this be done for me. Let me alone two months, so that I may go up and down upon the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions. 38 He said, Go. He sent her away for two months. And she went with her companions and wept for her virginity upon the mountains. 39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did to her his vow that he had vowed. And she knew no man. And it is a custom in Israel, 40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to tell again of the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.
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