Judges 11
The New Consensus Bible is an AI-generated contemporary rendering, built from seven public-domain translations and the 20-tradition consensus. See all the work behind this chapter.
1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, and he was the son of a prostitute; and Gilead fathered Jephthah. 2And Gilead's wife bore him sons. When the wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You will not inherit in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman." 3Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob; and empty men gathered around Jephthah, and they went out with him. 4After a time, the sons of Ammon fought with Israel. 5And when the sons of Ammon fought with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6And they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our commander, so that we may fight against the sons of Ammon." 7Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?" 8And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we have turned back to you now, so that you may go with us and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead." 9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight against the sons of Ammon, and the LORD gives them over to me, will I be your head?" 10The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD will be a hearer between us; surely we will do according to your word." 11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah. 12Jephthah 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?" 13The king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took my land in his going up from Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore, return them in peace." 14And Jephthah added again and sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, 15and said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the sons of Ammon. 16For in their going up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh. 17Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Let me cross, please, through your land'; but the king of Edom did not listen. And he also sent to the king of Moab, but he was not willing; so Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18Then they went through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped beyond the Arnon; but they did not come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, 'Let us cross, please, through your land to my place.' 20But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his border; so Sihon gathered all his people, and they encamped at Jahaz, and he fought with Israel. 21And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them down. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 22And they possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23So now the LORD, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and would you possess it? 24Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed from before us, we will possess. 25And now, are you indeed better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 26While Israel dwelled in Heshbon and its daughters, and in Aroer and its daughters, and in all the cities that are along the sides of the Arnon for three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? 27I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong to fight against me. May the LORD the Judge judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon." 28But the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent to him. 29Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the sons of Ammon. 30And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31then it will be that whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering." 32So Jephthah passed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand. 33And he struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-cheramim, with a very great smiting. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel. 34Then Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house; and look, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dances! And she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become my troubler! For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot go back." 36And she said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to what came out of your mouth, since the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, on the sons of Ammon." 37And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone for two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and I and my companions weep for my virginity." 38He said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months; and she went, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her his vow which he had vowed. Now she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel 40that from year to year the daughters of Israel would go to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
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