Judges 11:10-37

¹⁰And the elders of Galaad said to Jephthae, The Lord be witness between us, if we shall not do according to your word.

¹¹And Jephthae went with the elders of Galaad, and the people made him head and ruler over them: and Jephthae spoke all his words before the Lord in Massepha.

¹²And Jephthae sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have I to do with you, that you have come against me to fight in my land?

¹³And the king of the children of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthae, Because Israel took my land when he went up out of Egypt, from Arnon to Jaboc, and to Jordan: now then return them peaceably and I will depart.

¹⁴And Jephthae again sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon,

¹⁵and said to him, Thus says Jephthae, Israel took not the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon;

¹⁶for in their going up out of Egypt Israel went in the wilderness as far as the sea of Siph, and came to Cades.

¹⁷And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, I will pass, if it please you, by your land: and the king of Edom complied not: and Israel also sent to the king of Moab, and he did not consent; and Israel sojourned in Cades.

¹⁸And they journeyed in the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab: and they came by the east of the land of Moab, an encamped in the country beyond Arnon, and came not within the borders of Moab, for Arnon is the border of Moab.

¹⁹And Israel sent messengers to Seon king of the Amorite, king of Esbon, and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, by your land to our place.

²⁰And Seon did not trust Israel to pass by his coast; and Seon gathered all his people, and they encamped at Jasa; and he set the battle in array against Israel.

²¹And the Lord God of Israel delivered Seon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck him; and Israel inherited all the land of the Amorite who lived in that land,

²²from Arnon and to Jaboc, and from the wilderness to Jordan.

²³And now the Lord God of Israel has removed the Amorite from before his people Israel, and shall you inherit his land?

²⁴Will you not inherit those possessions which Chamos your god shall cause you to inherit; and shall not we inherit the land of all those whom the Lord our God has removed from before you?

²⁵And now are you any better than Balac son of Sepphor, king of Moab? did he indeed fight with Israel, or indeed make war with him,

²⁶when Israel lived in Esebon and in its coasts, and in the land of Aroer and in its coasts, and in all the cities by Jordan, three hundred years? and therefore did you not recover them in that time?

²⁷And now I have not sinned against you, but you wrong me in preparing war against me: may the Lord the Judge judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸But the king of the children of Ammon listened not to the words of Jephthae, which he sent to him.

²⁹And the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthae, and he passed over Galaad, and Manasse, and passed by the watch-tower of Galaad to the other side of the children of Ammon.

³⁰And Jephthae vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,

³¹then it shall come to pass that whoever shall first come out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, he shall be the Lord's: I will offer him up for a whole burnt offering.

³²And Jephthae advanced to meet the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hand.

³³And he struck them from Aroer till one comes to Arnon, in number twenty cities, and as far as Ebelcharmim, with a very great destruction: and the children of Ammon were straitened before the children of Israel.

³⁴And Jephthae came to Massepha to his house; and behold, his daughter came forth to meet him with timbrels and dances; and she was his only child, he had not another son or daughter.

³⁵And it came to pass when he saw her, that he tore his garments, and said, Ah, ah, my daughter, you have indeed troubled me, and you were the cause of my trouble; and I have opened my mouth against you to the Lord, and I shall not be able to return from it.

³⁶And she said to him, Father, have you opened your mouth to the Lord? Do to me accordingly as the word went out of your mouth, in that the Lord has wrought vengeance for you on your enemies of the children of Ammon.

³⁷And she said to her father, Let my father now do this thing: let me alone for two months, and I will go up and down on the mountains, and I will bewail my virginity, I and my companions.