Judges 11:5-29

⁵that the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶And they said to Jephthah, Come, and be our head, and we will fight with the sons of Ammon.

⁷And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did ye not hate me, and cast me out of my father’s house, and banish me from you? and wherefore are ye come to me now when ye want me?

⁸And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore have we now turned to thee, that thou shouldest go with us, and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

⁹And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If ye turn me back to fight with the children of Ammon, and the Lord should deliver them before me, then will I be your head.

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we shall not do according to thy word.

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

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

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

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

¹⁵and said to him, Thus says Jephthah, 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 Kadesh.

¹⁷And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, I will pass, if it please thee, by thy 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 Kadesh.

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, and 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 Sihon king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray thee, by thy land to our place.

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

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

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

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

²⁴Wilt thou not inherit those possessions which Chemosh thy god shall cause thee to inherit; and shall not we inherit the land of all those whom the Lord our God has removed from before you?

²⁵And now art thou any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he indeed fight with Israel, or indeed make war with him,

²⁶when Israel dwelt in Heshbon 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 wherefore didst thou not recover them in that time?

²⁷And now I have not sinned against thee, but thou wrongest 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 hearkened not to the words of Jephthah, which he sent to him.

²⁹And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed by the watchtower of Gilead to the other side of the children of Ammon.