Judges 11

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¹And so in that time Jephthah, a man of Gilead, was a full strong man, and a fighter, the son of a woman whore, the which Jephthah was born of Gilead.

²And Gilead had a wife, of whom he had sons, which after that they increased, casted out Jephthah, and said, Thou mayest not be heir in the house of our father, for thou art born of another mother.

³And he fled his brethren, and eschewed them, and dwelled in the land of Tob; and poor men were gathered to him, and pursued him as a prince.

⁴In those days the sons of Ammon fought against Israel;

⁵and when they continued sharply, the greater men in birth of Gilead, went to take into the help of them-selves Jephthah from the land of Tob;

⁶and they said to him, Come thou, and be our prince, and fight against the sons of Ammon.

⁷To which he answered, Whether not ye it be, that hated me, and threw me out of the house of my father, and now ye have come to me, and were compelled by need?

⁸And the princes of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore for this cause we came now to thee, that thou go with us, and fight against the sons of Ammon; and that thou be the duke of all men that dwell in Gilead.

⁹And Jephthah said to them, Whether ye came verily, or without fraud, to me, that I fight for you against the sons of Ammon, and if the Lord shall betake them into mine hands, shall I be your prince?

¹⁰The which answered to him, The Lord himself, that heareth these things, is mediator and witness, that we shall fulfill our promises to thee.

¹¹And so Jephthah went with the princes of Gilead, and all the people made him their prince; and Jephthah spake all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh.

¹²And he sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, which messengers should say of his person, What is to me and to thee, for thou hast come against me to waste my land?

¹³To the which messengers the king answered, For Israel, when he ascended or went up from Egypt, took away my land, from the coasts of Arnon unto Jabbok, and to Jordan, now there-fore yield it to me again with peace.

¹⁴By the which messengers Jephthah sent again, and commanded to them, that they should say to the king of Ammon,

¹⁵Jephthah saith these things, Israel took not the land of Moab, neither the land of the sons of Ammon;

¹⁶but when they went up from Egypt, Israel went by the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came into Kadesh;

¹⁷and he sent messengers to the king of Edom, and said, Suffer thou me, that I go through thy land; the which king would not assent to the prayers of Israel. Also Israel sent to the king of Moab, and he despised to give Israel passage; and so Israel dwelled in Kadesh,

¹⁸and he compassed by the side the land of Edom, and the land of Moab; and he came to the east coast of the land of Moab, and setted tents beyond Arnon, neither he would enter into the terms of Moab; for Arnon is the end of the land of Moab.

¹⁹And so Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of Amorites, that dwelled in Heshbon; and they said to him, Suffer thou, that I pass through thy land unto the river.

²⁰And he despised the words of Israel, and suffered not him pass by his terms, but with a multitude with-out number gathered together, Sihon went out against Israel at Jahaz, and against-stood him strongly.

²¹And the Lord betook Sihon with all his host into the hands of Israel; and Israel smote him, and had in possession all the land of Amorites, the dwellers of that country,

²²and all the coasts thereof, from Arnon unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness unto Jordan.

²³Therefore the Lord God of Israel destroyed Amorites, fighting against him for his people Israel. And wilt thou now have in possession his land?

²⁴Whether not those things which Chemosh, thy god, had in possession, be due to thee by right? Soothly those things which the Lord our God over-comer hath gotten, shall fall into our possession;

²⁵but in hap thou art better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, either thou mayest say, that Balak strived against Israel, and fought against him,

²⁶when Israel dwelled in Heshbon, and in the towns thereof, and in Aroer, and in towns thereof, and in all the cities beyond Jordan, by three hundred years. Why in so much time assayed ye nothing on this asking again?

²⁷Therefore not I do sin against thee, but thou doest evil against me, and bringest in battles not just to me; the Lord, judge of this day, deem betwixt the sons of Israel and betwixt the sons of Ammon.

²⁸And the king of the sons of Ammon would not assent to the words of Jephthah, which he sent by the messengers.

²⁹Therefore the spirit of the Lord was made upon Jephthah, and he compassed Gilead, and Manasseh, Mizpeh and Gilead; and he passed from thence to the sons of Ammon,

³⁰and he made a vow to the Lord, and said, If thou shalt betake the sons of Ammon into mine hands,

³¹whoever goeth out first of the doors of mine house, and cometh against me turning again with peace from the sons of Ammon, I shall offer him burnt sacrifice to the Lord.

³²And Jephthah went to the sons of Ammon, to fight against them, which the Lord betook into his hands;

³³and he smote from Aroer till that he came into Minnith, twenty cities, and unto Abel, which is set about with vineries or vines, with full great vengeance; and the sons of Ammon were made low of the sons of Israel.

³⁴And when Jephthah turned again into Mizpeh, his house, his one begotten daughter came to meet him with tympans, and crowds dancing; for he had not other free children.

³⁵And when he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! my daughter, thou hast troubled me, and thou art troubled; for I opened my mouth to the Lord, and I may do none other thing.

³⁶To whom she answered, My father, if thou openedest thy mouth to the Lord, do to me whatever thing thou promisedest, while vengeance and victory of thine enemies be granted to thee.

³⁷And she said to her father, Give thou to me only this thing, which I beseech; suffer thou me that in two months I compass the hills, and bewail my maidenhood with my fellows.

³⁸To whom he answered, Go thou. And he suffered her in two months. And when she had gone forth with her fellows, and her play-frères, she bewept her maidenhood in the hills.

³⁹And when two months were fulfilled, she turned again to her father, and he did to her as he avowed or vowed; and she knew no man fleshly. From that time a custom came in Israel, and that custom is kept,

⁴⁰that after the end of the year the daughters of Israel come together, and bewail the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead four days.