Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New 
York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

                                 JEPHTHAH

JDG 11:1  Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was 
Gilead; his mother was a prostitute.

JDG 11:2  Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, 
they drove Jephthah away. "You are not going to get any inheritance in our 
family," they said, "because you are the son of another woman."

JDG 11:3  So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of 
Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him.

JDG 11:5  the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

JDG 11:6  "Come," they said, "be our commander, so we can fight the 
Ammonites."

JDG 11:7  Jephthah said to them, "Didn't you hate me and drive me from my 
father's house? Why do you come to me now, when you're in trouble?"

JDG 11:8  The elders of Gilead said to him, "Nevertheless, we are turning 
to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head 
over all who live in Gilead."

JDG 11:9  Jephthah answered, "Suppose you take me back to fight the 
Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me--will I really be your head?"

JDG 11:10  The elders of Gilead replied, "The LORD is our witness; we will 
certainly do as you say."

JDG 11:11  So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made 
him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the 
LORD in Mizpah.

JDG 11:12  Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the 
question: "What do you have against us that you have attacked our country?"

JDG 11:13  The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, "When 
Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the 
Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably."

JDG 11:14  Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king,

JDG 11:15  saying: "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the 
land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.

JDG 11:16  But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the 
desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh.

JDG 11:17  Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Give 
us permission to go through your country,' but the king of Edom would not 
listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel 
stayed at Kadesh.

JDG 11:18  "Next they traveled through the desert, skirted the lands of 
Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and 
camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of 
Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

JDG 11:19  "Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who 
ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, 'Let us pass through your country to our 
own place.'

JDG 11:20  Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his 
territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz and fought with 
Israel.

JDG 11:21  "Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men 
into Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land 
of the Amorites who lived in that country,

JDG 11:22  capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the 
desert to the Jordan.

JDG 11:23  "Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites 
out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over?

JDG 11:24  Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, 
whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess.

JDG 11:25  Are you better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he 
ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them?

JDG 11:26  For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the 
surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn't you 
retake them during that time?

JDG 11:27  I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war 
against me. Let the LORD, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between 
the Israelites and the Ammonites."

JDG 11:28  The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message 
Jephthah sent him.

JDG 11:29  Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed 
Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he 
advanced against the Ammonites.

JDG 11:30  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites 
into my hands,

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY

JDG 11:31  whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I 
return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD'S, and I will 
sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

JDG 11:32  Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD 
gave them into his hands.

JDG 11:33  He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of 
Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

JDG 11:34  When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come 
out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She 
was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.

JDG 11:35  When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My 
daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a 
vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

JDG 11:36  "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. 
Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your 
enemies, the Ammonites.

JDG 11:37  But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to 
roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

JDG 11:38  "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and 
the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.

JDG 11:39  After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to 
her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite 
custom

JDG 11:40  that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to 
commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

JDG 12:1  The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to 
Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without 
calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your 
head."

JDG 12:4  Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought 
against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites 
had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh."

JDG 12:7  Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, 
and was buried in a town in Gilead.

HEB 11:32  And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about 
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,

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