Judges 11

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1. 1Jephthah the Gileadite was a powerful warrior, but his mother was a prostitute. His father was Gilead.
2. 2Gilead's wife also gave him sons, and when those sons grew up, they threw Jephthah out. "You won't get any share of our father's inheritance," they told him, "because you're the son of another woman."
3. 3So Jephthah ran away from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob. A group of worthless men gathered around him and went out with him.
4. 4Some time later, the Ammonites went to war against Israel.
5. 5When the Ammonites attacked, the elders of Gilead went to the land of Tob to bring Jephthah back.
6. 6"Come be our commander," they said, "so we can fight the Ammonites."
7. 7Jephthah shot back, "Didn't you hate me? Didn't you throw me out of my father's house? So why are you coming to me now that you're in trouble?"
8. 8The elders of Gilead replied, "That's exactly why we've come back to you. Come with us and fight the Ammonites, and you'll be the leader over everyone in Gilead."
9. 9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites, and the LORD delivers them into my hands, will I be your leader?"
10. 10The elders answered, "The LORD is our witness — we will do exactly what you say."
11. 11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.
12. 12Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon, asking, "What is between us, that you have come to fight in my land?"
13. 13The king of Ammon told Jephthah's messengers, "Because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt — everything from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peacefully."
14. 14Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon
15. 15with this reply: "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of Ammon.
16. 16When Israel came up from Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and then on to Kadesh.
17. 17From there, Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking, 'Please let us pass through your land.' But the king of Edom refused. They sent the same request to the king of Moab, and he also refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18. 18Then they traveled through the wilderness, going around the lands of Edom and Moab. They came up along the eastern side of Moab and set up camp on the other side of the Arnon River. They never crossed into Moab's territory, because the Arnon was Moab's border.
19. 19Next, Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon, saying, 'Please let us pass through your land to reach our destination.'
20. 20But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, he assembled his entire army, set up camp at Jahaz, and attacked Israel.
21. 21The LORD, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and his entire army over to Israel. Israel defeated them and took possession of all the land belonging to the Amorites who lived there.
22. 22They took control of all the Amorite territory from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
23. 23So it was the LORD, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites to make room for his people Israel. And now you think you should have that land?
24. 24Don't you keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you? In the same way, we will hold on to everything the LORD our God has given us.
25. 25Are you really any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever challenge Israel or go to war against them?
26. 26Israel has lived in Heshbon and its surrounding towns, in Aroer and its surrounding towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for 300 years. Why didn't you try to take them back during all that time?
27. 27I have not sinned against you. You are the one doing wrong by making war against me. Let the LORD, the Judge, decide today between Israel and Ammon."
28. 28But the king of the children of Ammon ignored the message Jephthah sent him.
29. 29Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He marched through Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there advanced against the Ammonites.
30. 30Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you truly hand the Ammonites over to me,
31. 31then whatever comes out of the door of my house to greet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it as a burnt offering.
32. 32Jephthah crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD handed them over to him.
33. 33He struck them down from Aroer all the way to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
34. 34When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing a tambourine. She was his only child — he had no other sons or daughters.
35. 35The moment he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me. I made a vow to the LORD, and I cannot take it back."
36. 36She said to him, "My father, if you have made a vow to the LORD, do to me as you have promised, since the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites."
37. 37Then she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone for 2 months so that I may go up and down on the mountains and mourn my virginity with my friends."
38. 38"Go," he said. He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends to the mountains and bewailed her virginity.
39. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her what he had vowed. She had never been with a man. From this came a tradition in Israel:
40. 40Each year, the daughters of Israel would go for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.