Judges 11:5-29

⁵When that happened DOU, the leaders of the Gilead region went to Jephthah to bring him back from the Tob region to their area.

⁶They said to him, “Come with us and lead our army, and help us to fight against the men from the Ammon people-group!”

⁷But Jephthah replied, “You hated me RHQ previously! You forced me to leave my father's house! So why are you coming to me now, asking me to help you when you are experiencing trouble?”

⁸The leaders from Gilead replied, “ Yes, we are having trouble, and that is the reason that we have come to you now. If you come with us and help us to fight against the Ammon people-group, after we defeat them, we will appoint you to be the leader of all us people in the Gilead region.”

⁹Jephthah replied, “If I go back to Gilead with you to fight against the Ammon people-group, and if Yahweh helps us to defeat them, will you truly appoint me to be your leader?”

¹⁰They replied, “Yahweh is listening to everything that we say. So he will punish us if we do not do everything that you tell us to do.”

¹¹So Jephthah went with them back to the Gilead region, and the people appointed him to be their leader and the commander of their army. And Jephthah solemnly promised to Yahweh there at Mizpah to serve him well.

¹²Jephthah sent some messengers to the king of the Ammon people-group. They asked the king, “What have we done to make you angry, with the result that your army is coming to fight against the people in our land?”

¹³The king replied, “ We have come to fight against you Israelis because you took our land when you came here from Egypt. You took all our land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north. So if you now give it back to us, there ◄will bepeace between us/we will not fight against you►.”

¹⁴The messengers returned to Jephthah and told him what the king had said. So Jephthah sent the messengers to the king again.

¹⁵They said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘ It is not true that we Israelis took the land from the Moab people-group and the Ammon people-group.

¹⁶When the Israeli people came out of Egypt, they walked through the desert to the Red Sea, and then walked across it and traveled to Kadesh town at the border of the Edom region.

¹⁷They sent messengers to the king of the Edom people-group, to say to him, “Please allow us Israelis to walk across your land.” But the king of the Edom people-group refused. Later we sent the same message to the king of the Moab people-group, but he also refused to allow the Israelis to go through his land. So the Israelis stayed at Kadesh for a long time.

¹⁸Then the Israelis went into the desert and walked outside the borders of the Edom and Moab regions. They walked east of the Moab region, east of the Arnon River, which is the eastern border of the Moab region. They did not cross that river to enter the Moab region.

¹⁹Then the Israelis sent a message to Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lived in Heshbon city. They asked him, “Will you please allow us Israeli people to cross through your land to arrive at the land to which we are going.”

²⁰But Sihon did not trust the Israelis; he thought that they would steal some of the things in his land. So he gathered all his troops and they set up their tents at Jahaz village and then they attacked the Israelis.

²¹But Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, enabled the Israeli army to defeat IDM Sihon and his army. Then they ◄took possession of/started to live in► all the land where the Amor people-group had lived.

²²The Israelis took all the land that belonged to the Amor people-group, from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the Jordan River in the west.

²³It was Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, who forced the Amor people-group to leave as the Israelis advanced. So do you now think that you can force the Israelis to leave RHQ?

²⁴You take the land that your god Chemosh has given to you. And we will live in the land that Yahweh our God has given to us!

²⁵◄You are no/Are you► better than Zippor's son Balak, who was the king of the Moab people-group? He never RHQ quarreled with the Israeli people, and he never started to fight against us RHQ!

²⁶For three hundred years the Israeli people have lived in Heshbon and Aroer cities in your region, and in the surrounding towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon River. Why have you people of the Ammon people-group not taken back those cities during all those years RHQ?

²⁷We have not sinned against you, but you are sinning against me by attacking me and my army. I trust that Yahweh, the great judge, will decide whether we Israelis are right, or whether you people of the Ammon people-group are right.’ ”

²⁸But the king of the Ammon people-group did not pay attention to that message from Jephthah.

²⁹Then the Spirit of Yahweh took control of Jephthah. Jephthah went through the Gilead region and through the area where the tribe of Manasseh lived, to enlist/gather men for his army. He finally gathered them together in Mizpah city in the Gilead region to fight against the Ammon people-group.