Jephthah Delivers Israel
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a woman, a whore; and Gilead fathered Jephthah.
And Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and the wife’s sons grew up and drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”
And Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and empty men gathered themselves around Jephthah, and they went out with him.
And it was, after some days, that the sons of Ammon made war with Israel.
And it was, when the sons of Ammon made war with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to take Jephthah from the land of Tob.
And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, and let us fight against the sons of Ammon.”
And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? So why have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned back to you now. And you shall go with us and fight against the sons of Ammon; and you shall be head over us, over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you are bringing me back to fight against the sons of Ammon, and the LORD gives them over before me — I will be your head.”
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be the hearer between us, if we do not do according to your word.”
And Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and commander; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.
And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What is there between me and you, that you have come to me to fight in my land?”
And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah: “Because Israel took my land when it came up from Egypt — from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and as far as the Jordan. And now, restore it in peace.”
And Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon,
and said to him: “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the sons of Ammon.
For when they came up from Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness as far as the Sea of Reeds, and came to Kadesh.
And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let me pass, please, through your land’ — but the king of Edom did not listen. And it sent to the king of Moab also, and he was not willing. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
And it walked through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came from the sunrise side of the land of Moab; and they camped across the Arnon. And they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass, please, through your land to my place.’
But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; and Sihon gathered all his people, and they camped at Jahaz, and he fought with Israel.
And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them; and Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitants of that land.
And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorite, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.
And now the LORD, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorite from before his people Israel — and you would possess it?
Is it not so: what Chemosh your god gives you to possess, that you possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed from before us, that we will possess.
And now — are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel, or ever fight against them?
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its daughter towns, and in Aroer and its daughter towns, and in all the cities that are along the Arnon, three hundred years — why did you not recover them within that time?
And I — I have not sinned against you; but you are doing me evil by making war on me. Let the LORD, the Judge, judge this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.”
But the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.
Jephthah’s Tragic Vow
And the spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, and he crossed through Gilead and Manasseh; and he crossed to Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he crossed over to the sons of Ammon.
And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said: “If you will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand,
then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, shall belong to the LORD — and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
And Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand.
And he struck them from Aroer as far as the entrance of Minnith — twenty cities — and as far as Abel-keramim, a very great blow. And the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house — and look, his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dances! And she was an only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
And it was, when he saw her, that he tore his garments and said: “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me to my knees — you have become my trouble. And I — I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot turn back.”
And she said to him: “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD. Do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth — after what the LORD has done for you: vengeance on your enemies, on the sons of Ammon.”
And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, and let me go and go down upon the mountains, and weep over my virginity, I and my companions.”
And he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went, she and her companions, and wept over her virginity on the mountains.
And it was at the end of two months that she returned to her father; and he did to her his vow that he had vowed. And she had never known a man. And it became a statute in Israel:
from year to year the daughters of Israel go to lament for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.