Judges 11

₁There was a man in the land of Gilead. His name was Jephthah. He was a very good soldier but he was the son of a prostitute. His father's name was Gilead. ₂Gilead had a wife and he also had children with her, but when her children became older, they chased Jephthah away. They told him: ‘You are the child of another woman. You may not inherit any of our father's money when he dies.’

₃Jephthah went away from his brothers. He went to live in the land of Tob. Some poor people who did not want to work came to Jephthah and he became their leader. ₄When the Ammonites came to start a war_against the Israelites, ₅the leaders of the Gilead people went to Jephthah in the land of Tob. ₆They asked Jephthah to be their leader and to help them go to war_against the Ammonites.

₇But Jephthah said to the leaders of the Gilead people: ‘You did not want me. You chased me away from my father's house. Why do you come to me now when you have problems?’ ₈The leaders of the Gilead people said to Jephthah: ‘Yes, we did that, but now we are asking you to come back. Help us to go to war_against the Ammonites, and then you will be the leader of all the people in Gilead.’

₉Jephthah said to the leaders of the Gilead people: ‘All right, I will go back with you if you want me to go, and I will go to war_against the Ammonites. If the Lord helps me defeat the Ammonites, will you really make me your leader?’ ₁₀The leaders of the Gilead people said to Jephthah: ‘The Lord hears what we say, and He is our Witness. We will do what you say, that is sure.’

₁₁Then Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead to the town of Mizpah and the people made him the chief of their army. Jephthah promised in the tent of the Lord that he would be their leader.

₁₂Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and asked him: ‘Why did you come to fight a war_against the people of my land? What have we done wrong?’

₁₃The king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah: ‘Go and tell Jephthah: I have come to start a war because the Israelites took my land when they came out of Egypt. This land between the Arnon River and the Jabbok River is my land, up to the Jordan River. If you give me my land back, then I will leave and there will be peace between us.’

₁₄Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of the Ammonites ₁₅and told him: ‘The Israelites did not take the land of the Moabite people or the land of the Ammonites. ₁₆When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they walked through the desert to the Red Sea and to the town of Kadesh. ₁₇Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom and they asked him if they could walk through his land. But the king of Edom said no, he did not want them to go through his land. Then they sent a message to the king of Moab, but he also said no, he did not want them to go through his land. The Israelites then stayed at the town of Kadesh. ₁₈Then the Israelites went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and they put up their tents east of Moab, on the other side of the Arnon River. They did not go over the border of the land of Moab because the Arnon River was the border. ₁₉The Israelites sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites in the town of Heshbon and they asked him if they could go through his land to their own place. ₂₀But King Sihon did not trust the Israelites and he did not want them to go through his land. He then called all his soldiers to come together and his army put their camp at the town of Jahaz and they started to go to war_against the Israelites. ₂₁The Lord God of Israel helped the Israelites defeat King Sihon and all his men. The Israelites won and they took all the land of the Amorites who had lived there before. ₂₂They took all the land of the Amorites from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, from the desert to the Jordan River. ₂₃It was the Lord God of Israel who defeated the Amorites and chased them away and He gave this land to his people, the Israelites. Why do you want to take this land and say we must go away? ₂₄You can take everything that your god, Chemosh, gives you and we will take what the Lord our God gives us. ₂₅You are no better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab. He did not want to argue or fight against the Israelites and he did not go to war_against us. ₂₆For 300 years the Israelites lived in the town of Heshbon and the villages near the town and in the town of Aroer and in the villages and in all the towns next to the Arnon River. Why didn't you try to take the towns and villages then? ₂₇We have done nothing wrong against you. You have done wrong against us. You have started to go to war_against us. I know that the Lord will say who is right today.’

₂₈The king of the Ammonites did not want to do what Jephthah asked him to do. ₂₉Then the Spirit_of_the_Lord came into Jephthah and he went through the land of Gilead and Manasseh up to the town of Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he went to the Ammonites. ₃₀Jephthah made a promise to the Lord and said: ‘Lord, if you help me defeat the Ammonites and I come back to my house, ₃₁I will then sacrifice the first person who comes out of my house to me as a burnt-offering to You.’

₃₂Then Jephthah went to war_against the Ammonites and God helped him win against them. ₃₃Jephthah defeated the Ammonites. There were 20 towns, from Aroer to Minnith and Abel-Keramim. The Israelites won against the Ammonites and they humiliated them. ₃₄When Jephthah came back to his home in Mizpah, it was his own daughter who first came out of his house to meet him. She played a tambourine and danced. She was his only child. ₃₅When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and he said: ‘My daughter, you have made me very, very sad, because I have promised the Lord that I will sacrifice to Him the first person who comes out of my house to meet me. Now I must do what I have promised.’

₃₆His daughter told him: ‘Father, you have promised to give me to the Lord and the Lord helped you defeat your enemies, the Ammonites. Now you have to do what you have promised. ₃₇But I ask only one thing: Give me 2 months so that I can go to the mountains with my friends. We want to cry there because I am going to die while I am a young girl.’ ₃₈Jephthah said to her: ‘Yes, you may go.’ Jephthah let her go to the mountains with her friends for 2 months and they cried because she had to die while she was still a young girl. ₃₉After 2 months she came back home to her father. He did what he had promised the Lord. She had never had sex with a man. This is why ₄₀from that day, the young girls of Israel go out and cry for 4 days to remember the daughter of Jephthah, the man from Gilead.