NSB(i)
12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon. He said: »What do you have against us that you want to fight us? Why have you invaded our country?«
13 The king of Ammon answered Jephthah’s messengers: »Because Israel took away our land when they came out of Egypt. They took land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. Now you must give it back peacefully.«
14 Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon.
15 This was his answer: »It is not true that Israel took away the land of Moab or the land of Ammon.
16 »It happened this way: ‘when the Israelites left Egypt, they went through the desert to the Gulf of Aqaba and came to Kadesh.
17 »‘They sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but he would not let them go through his land. So the people of Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18 »‘Then they went through the desert around the land of Edom and the land of Moab until they came to the east side of Moab, on the other side of the Arnon River. They camped there, but they did not cross the Arnon because it was the boundary of Moab.
19 »‘The people of Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon. They asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land.
20 »‘But Sihon refused to let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, camped at Jahaz, and attacked Israel.
21 »‘Jehovah, the God of Israel, gave the people of Israel victory over Sihon and his army. So the people of Israel took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country.
22 »‘They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west.
23 »‘Jehovah, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites for his people, the people of Israel.
24 »‘Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything Jehovah, our God, has taken for us.
25 »‘Do you think you are better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever challenge Israel or fight with them?
26 »‘Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer for three hundred years, and the towns around them, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon River. Why did you not retake them during that time?
27 »‘I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong to me by making war on me. Jehovah is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.’«
28 The king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.