21The LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
22They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
23So now the LORD, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
24Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever the LORD our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
25Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
26Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the side of the Arnon for three hundred years! Why didn’t you recover them within that time?
27Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May The LORD the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”
28However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29Then the LORD’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
32So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hand.
33He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. 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 are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I can’t go back.”
36She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.”
37Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”
38He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.
39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel
40that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Judges 11
Judges 11:21-40