Judges 11:5-29

⁵As the Ammonites were attacking Israel, the elders of Gilead came to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶“Come and be our army commander,” they asked Jepthah, “so we can fight the Ammonites.”

⁷“Weren't you the ones who hated me and drove me from my father's house?” Jephthah asked them, “Why are you coming to me now you're in trouble?”

⁸“Yes, that's why we've turned to you now,” the elders of Gilead replied. “Come with us and fight the Ammonites, and you will be the leader of all the people of Gilead.”

⁹“So if I go back with you and fight the Ammonites, and the Lord makes me victorious, then I'll be your leader?” Jephthah asked the elders of Gilead.

¹⁰“The Lord will be a witness between us,” they replied. “We'll do whatever you say.”

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and army commander. And Jephthah repeated all his conditions before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to ask him, “What have you got against me that you want to attack my land?”

¹³The king of the Ammonites replied to Jephthah's messengers, “Israel seized my land when they came from Egypt. It extended from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, and across to the Jordan River. So give it back and there'll be no fighting.”

¹⁴Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites

¹⁵to tell him, “This is Jephthah's reply: The Israelites did not take any land from Moab or from the Ammonites.

¹⁶When they left Egypt, the Israelites went through the desert to the Red Sea and arrived at Kadesh.

¹⁷They sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your country,’ but the king of Edom refused to listen. They also sent the same request to the king of Moab, and he refused too. So they remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸Eventually the Israelites traveled through the desert, avoiding the lands of Edom and Moab. They arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River. But they did not enter Moab territory, for the Arnon River was its border.

¹⁹Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled from Heshbon, and asked him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our own country.’

²⁰But Sihon didn't trust the Israelites to pass through his territory. So he assembled his army, set up camp at Jahaz, and attacked the Israelites.

²¹However, the Lord, the God of Israel, handed over Sihon and all his people to the Israelites, who defeated them. So the Israelites took over all the land inhabited by the Amorites.

²²They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, and from the desert to the Jordan River.

²³It was the Lord, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites before his people Israel, so why should you take it over?

²⁴Why don't you keep whatever your god Chemosh gave you, and we'll keep whatever the Lord our God has given us?

²⁵Do you think you're so much better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or attack them?

²⁶Israelites have been living in Heshbon, Aroer, their villages, and in all the towns along the banks of the Arnon River for three hundred years. Why didn't you take them back during that time?

²⁷I have not sinned against you, but you have done me wrong by going to war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

²⁸But the king of Ammon didn't pay any attention to what Jephthah had to say.

²⁹Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then on through Mizpah of Gilead. From there he advanced to attack the Ammonites.