Judges 11 Now Jephthae, the Galaadite, was at the head of an army. He was the son of a harlot, who bore Jephthae to Galaad.

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Now Jephthae, the Galaadite, was at the head of an army. He was the son of a harlot, who bore Jephthae to Galaad. ² Galaad's wife also bore him sons; and when the wife's sons grew up, they thrust out Jephthae, and said to him, Thou shalt have no inheritance in the house of our father; for thou art the son of a concubine. ³ Upon which Jephthae fled from the face of his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob. And there were gathered to Jephthae men of desperate fortunes, who went out with him. ⁴ Now when the children of Ammon came out in array to fight against Israel, ⁵ the elders of Galaad went to bring Jephthae from the land of Tob, ⁶ and they said to him, Come and be our leader that we may fight the Ammonites; ⁷ whereupon Jephthae said to the elders of Galaad, Have you not hated me, and driven me from my father's house, and sent me away from you? Why then are you come to me now when you are in distress? ⁸ And the elders of Galaad said to him, It is for this very reason, that we have now come to thee. Therefore thou must come with us, and fight the children of Ammon, and thou shalt be our chief over all the inhabitants of Galaad. ⁹ Then Jephthae said to the elders of Galaad, If you take me back to fight the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them up before me, I shall be your chief? ¹⁰ And the elders of Galaad said to him, Let the Lord be witness between us, if we do not according to this thy word. ¹¹ Thereupon Jephthae went with the elders of Galaad, and the people made him head and leader over them. And when Jephthae had repeated all these his terms before the Lord, at Massepha, ¹² he sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come up against me to fight in my land? ¹³ And the king of the Ammonites said to Jephthae's messengers; Because Israel took my land when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon to Jabok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore me those lands peaceably, and I will depart. ¹⁴ Thereupon Jephthae again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, ¹⁵ and said to him, Thus saith Jephthae, Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon. ¹⁶ For when they came out of Egypt, Israel marched through the wilderness to the sea of Siph, and came to Kades; ¹⁷ and Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, march through thy land; but the king of Edom did not consent. They sent also to the king of Moab; but the king of Moab did not consent. So after halting at Kades, ¹⁸ Israel marched through the wilderness, and went round the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came eastward of Moab, and encamped on the bank of the Arnon, but did not enter the borders of Moab; for Arnon was the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ Then Israel sent messengers to Seon, king of the Amorites; the king of Esebon, and said to him, Let us we pray thee pass through thy land to our place; ²⁰ but Seon would not trust Israel to pass through along his border, but assembled all his people, and encamped at Jasa, and came to an engagement with Israel. ²¹ And the Lord God of Israel delivered into the hands of Israel, Seon and all his people, and they smote him. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited the country ²² from Arnon to Jabok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. ²³ Now therefore hath the Lord God of Israel removed the Amorites from before his people, and art thou to possess them? ²⁴ If thy god Chamos were to put thee in possession of any places, wouldst thou not possess them? And shall not we succeed all those whom the Lord our God hath removed from before us? ²⁵ Besides, art thou in any respect better than Balak, son of Sepphor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel, or go to war with them about this, ²⁶ all the while they lived in Esebon, and the borders thereof, and in the land of Aroer, and the borders thereof, and in all the cities along the Jordan, for three hundred years? Why didst thou not in all this time recover them. ²⁷ Now therefore I call God to witness, that I have not sinned against thee, and that thou dealest wrongfully in going to war with me. Let the Lord, who is Judge, judge this day between Israel and the Ammonites. ²⁸ And when the king of the Ammonites hearkened not to the message which Jephthae sent him, ²⁹ the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthae, and he marched through Galaad, and Manasses, and passed the watch tower of Galaad, into the border of the children of Ammon. ³⁰ And Jephthae vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, If thou deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, ³¹ it shall be, that whosoever cometh from the door of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall be for the Lord. Him will I dedicate as a whole burnt offering. ³² And when Jephthae passed on to come to battle with the children of Ammon, the Lord delivered them into his hand, ³³ and he smote them from Aroer all the way to Arnon, through the number of twenty cities, and even to Ebelcharmin, with a prodigious slaughter. ³⁴ And when the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel, and Jephthae came to Massepha, to his house, behold his daughter came out to meet him, with timbrels and choirs. Now she was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ And when he saw her he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! Alas! my daughter! Thou hast indeed troubled me; and thou thyself mayst be in trouble with me, for I have opened my mouth to the Lord against thee, and I cannot go back. ³⁶ Upon which she said to him, Hast thou, my father, opened thy mouth to the Lord? Do to me according to what hath proceeded out of thy mouth, since the Lord hath executed vengeance for thee on thine enemies; on the children of Ammon. ³⁷ Then she said to her father, Grant me; my father, I pray thee, this favour. Let me alone two months, and I will go up and down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity; I call God to witness, with only my female attendants. ³⁸ And he said, Go. So he sent her away two months, and she went with her female attendants, and bewailed her virgin state on the mountains. ³⁹ And at the end of two months she returned to her father and he performed with her his vow, which he had vowed; so she knew not a man. ⁴⁰ And it was a custom in Israel, from year to year, for the daughters of Israel to go and bewail the daughter of Jephthae, the Galaadite, four days in the year.