Judges 11

¹ And Jephthah the Gileadite has been a mighty man of valor, and he [is] son of a woman, a harlot; and Gilead begets Jephthah, ² and the wife of Gilead bears to him sons, and the wife's sons grow up and cast out Jephthah, and say to him, "You do not inherit in the house of our father; for son of another woman [are] you." ³ And Jephthah flees from the face of his brethren, and dwells in the land of Tob; and vain men gather themselves together unto Jephthah, and they go out with him. ⁴ And it comes to pass, after a time, that the Bene-Ammon fight with Israel, ⁵ and it comes to pass, when the Bene-Ammon have fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead go to take Jephthah from the land of Tob; ⁶ and they say unto Jephthah, "Come, and you have been to us for captain, and we fight against the Bene-Ammon." ⁷ And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Have not you hated me? and you cast me out from the house of my father, and wherefore have you come unto me now when you are in distress?" ⁸ and the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, "Therefore, now, we have turned back unto you; and you have gone with us, and fought against the Bene-Ammon, and you have been to us for head - to all the inhabitants of Gilead." ⁹ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, "If you are taking me back to fight against the Bene-Ammon, and Yahweh has given them before me - I, am I to you for a head?" ¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, "Yahweh is hearkening between us - if according to your word we do not so." ¹¹ And Jephthah goes with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them for head and for captain, and Jephthah speaks all his words before Yahweh in Mizpeh. ¹² And Jephthah sends messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, saying, "What - to me and to you, that you have come in unto me, to fight in my land." ¹³ And the king of the Bene-Ammon said unto the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took my land in his coming up out of Egypt, from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan; and now, restore them in peace." ¹⁴ And Jephthah adds yet and sends messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, ¹⁵ and said to him, "Thus said Jephthah, Israel took not the land of Moab, and the land of the Bene-Ammon, ¹⁶ for in their coming up out of Egypt, Israel goes in the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and comes in to Kadesh, ¹⁷ and Israel sends messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me pass over, I pray you, through your land, and the king of Edom hearkened not; and also unto the king of Moab has [Israel] sent, and he has not been willing; and Israel abides in Kadesh, ¹⁸ and he goes through the wilderness, and compasses the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and comes in at the rising of the sun of the land of Moab, and they encamp beyond Arnon, and have not come into the border of Moab, for Arnon [is] the border of Moab. ¹⁹ And Israel sends messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, Let us pass over, we pray you, through your land, unto my place, ²⁰ and Sihon has not trusted Israel to pass over through his border, and Sihon gathers all his people, and they encamp in Jahaz, and fight with Israel; ²¹ and Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, gives Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smite them, and Israel possesses all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that land, ²² and they possess all the border of the Amorite from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness, and unto the Jordan. ²³ And now, Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorite from the presence of His people Israel, and you would possess it! ²⁴ That which Chemosh your elohim causes you to possess - do you not possess it? and all that which Yahweh our Elohim has dispossessed from our presence, it we do possess. ²⁵ And now, [are] you at all better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he at all strive with Israel? did he at all fight against them? ²⁶ In Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and in its towns, and in Aroer and in its towns, and in all the cities which [are] by the sides of Arnon three hundred years - and wherefore have you not delivered them in that time? ²⁷ And I - I have not sinned against you, and you are doing with me evil - to fight against me. Yahweh, the Judge, does judge to-day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon." ²⁸ And the king of the Bene-Ammon has not hearkened unto the words of Jephthah which he sent unto him, ²⁹ and the Spirit of Yahweh is on Jephthah, and he passes over Gilead and Manasseh, and passes over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he has passed over to the Bene-Ammon. ³⁰ And Jephthah vows a vow to Yahweh, and said, "If You do at all give the Bene-Ammon into my hand - ³¹ then it has been, that which at all comes out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon - it has been to Yahweh, or I have offered up for it - a burnt-offering." ³² And Jephthah passes over unto the Bene-Ammon to fight against them, and Yahweh gives them into his hand, ³³ and he smites them from Aroer, and unto your going in to Minnith, twenty cities, and unto the meadow of the vineyards - a very great smiting; and the Bene-Ammon are humbled at the presence of the sons of Israel. ³⁴ And Jephthah comes into Mizpeh, unto his house, and lo, his daughter is coming out to meet him with timbrels, and with choruses, and save her alone, he has none, son or daughter. ³⁵ And it comes to pass, when he sees her, that he rends his garments, and said, "Alas, my daughter, you have caused me greatly to bend, and you have been among those troubling me; and I - I have opened my mouth unto Yahweh, and I am not able to turn back." ³⁶ And she said unto him, "My father - you have opened your mouth unto Yahweh, do to me as it has gone out from your mouth, after that Yahweh has done for you vengeance on your enemies, on the Bene-Ammon." ³⁷ And she said unto her father, "Let this thing be done to me; desist from me two months, and I go on, and have gone down on the hills, and I weep for my virginity - I and my friends." ³⁸ And he said, "Go"; and he sends her away two months, and she goes, she and her friends, and she weeps for her virginity on the hills; ³⁹ and it comes to pass at the end of two months that she turns back unto her father, and he does to her his vow which he has vowed, and she knew not a man; and it is a statute in Israel. ⁴⁰ from time to time the daughters of Israel go to talk to the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.