May
27
Judges
11, 12
Jdg
11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he
was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of
Jephthah.
Jdg
11:2 Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up,
they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in
our father's house; for you are the son of another woman.
Jdg
11:3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of
Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went
out with him.
Jdg
11:4 It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war
against Israel.
Jdg
11:5 It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against
Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of
Tob;
Jdg
11:6 and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may
fight with the children of Ammon.
Jdg
11:7 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and
drive me out of my father's house? and why have you come to me now
when you are in distress?
Jdg
11:8 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.
Jdg
11:9 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?
Jdg
11:10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness
between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
Jdg
11:11 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.
Jdg
11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon,
saying, What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to
fight against my land?
Jdg
11:13 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.
Jdg
11:14 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of
Ammon;
Jdg
11:15 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,
Jdg
11:16 but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the
wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;
Jdg
11:17 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.
Jdg
11:18 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.
Jdg
11:19 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king
of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, please, through your
land to my place.
Jdg
11:20 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.
Jdg
11:21 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.
Jdg
11:22 They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon
even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
Jdg
11:23 So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the
Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
Jdg
11:24 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.
Jdg
11:25 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?
Jdg
11:26 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?
Jdg
11:27 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.
Jdg
11:28 However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the
words of Jephthah which he sent him.
Jdg
11:29 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.
Jdg
11:30 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed
deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
Jdg
11:31 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.
Jdg
11:32 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight
against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.
Jdg
11:33 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.
Jdg
11:34 Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter
came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was
his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
Jdg
11:35 It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and
said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are
one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh,
and I can't go back.
Jdg
11:36 She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to
Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your
mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies,
even on the children of Ammon.
Jdg
11:37 She said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me
alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and
bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
Jdg
11:38 He said, Go. He sent her away for two months: and she
departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the
mountains.
Jdg
11:39 It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her
father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and
she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel,
Jdg
11:40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the
daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Jdg
12:1 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed
northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight
against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we
will burn your house around you with fire.
Jdg
12:2 Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife
with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me
out of their hand.
Jdg
12:3 When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand,
and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered
them into my hand: why then have you come up to me this day, to fight
against me?
Jdg
12:4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and
fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because
they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst
of Ephraim, and
in the midst of Manasseh.
Jdg
12:5 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the
Ephraimites. It was so, that when any of
the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said
to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No;
Jdg
12:6 then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said
Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they
laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There
fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand.
Jdg
12:7 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the
Gileadite, and was buried in one of
the cities of Gilead.
Jdg
12:8 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
Jdg
12:9 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and
thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged
Israel seven years.
Jdg
12:10 Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem.
Jdg
12:11 After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged
Israel ten years.
Jdg
12:12 Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the
land of Zebulun.
Jdg
12:13 After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged
Israel.
Jdg
12:14 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy
donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
Jdg
12:15 Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried
in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the
Amalekites.