8
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
10
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
11
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.
12
Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land?
13
The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably.
14
Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;
15
and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn`t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,
16
but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;
17
then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn`t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
18
Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn`t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
19
Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place.
20
But Sihon didn`t trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21
Yahweh, 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.
22
They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
23
So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
24
Won`t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
25
Now 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?
26
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn`t you recover them within that time?
27
I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
28
However the king of the children of Ammon didn`t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29
Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30
Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
31
then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh`s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
32
So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.
33
He 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.