King James Version

1 And Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, and he was the son of a harlot, and Gilead begot Jephthah. 2 And the wife of Gilead bore him sons, and the sons of the woman grew up, and 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." 3 And Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob, and worthless men gathered to Jephthah, and they went out with him. 4 And it came to pass after some days that the children of Ammon fought against Israel. 5 And it came to pass when the sons of Ammon fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to take Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 And they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our commander, and let us fight against the Ammonites." 7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me and drove me from my father's house? And why have you come to me now when you are in distress?" 8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore now we have returned to you, and you shall go with us and fight against the children of Ammon, and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead." 9 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them into my hands, I will be your leader." 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "May the LORD be a witness between us if we do not do according to your word." 11 And Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people placed him as head and chief over them, and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah. 12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, "What do you have against me that you have come to me to fight in my land?" 13 And the king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan, and now you have returned it to me in peace." 14 And Joseph again opened and sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. 15 And he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab and the land of the children of Ammon." 16 For when they went up from Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf and came to Kadesh. 17 And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let us pass through your land," but the king of Edom would not listen. And he also sent to the king of Moab, who did not agree. And Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18 And he went in the wilderness and turned toward the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and he came from the east of the sun to the land of Moab, and they encamped by the river Arnon, and they did not come into the border of Moab because Arnon is the border of Moab. 19 And Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, "Let us pass through your land to our place." 20 And Sihon did not believe that Israel would pass through his border, and Sihon gathered all his people and they camped at Jahaz, and he fought with Israel. 21 And the LORD gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, which dwells in that area. 22 And they inherited all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23 And now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel, and you shall possess them. 24 Shall you not inherit what your god, Moab, has given, or all that Yahweh our God has given from before us? 25 And now, are you better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Is there a multitude with Israel, or should we fight against them? 26 In the dwelling of Israel in Heshbon and in her daughters, and in Aror and in her daughters, and in all the cities that are by the hand of Arnon, three hundred years, and why did you not deliver them at that time? 27 And I have not sinned against you, yet you are doing evil to me to fight against me; may the LORD judge today between the children of Israel and between the children of Ammon. 28 And the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him. 29 And the spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hand." 31 And it shall be that the one who goes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering. 32 And Jephthah went to the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hand. 33 And they struck from Aroer to your coming from the city of twenty and to Abel of the vineyards; a great blow indeed, and the sons of Ammon were terrified before the sons of Israel. 34 And Jephthah came to Mishpah to his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her. 35 And it was when he saw her, that he tore his garments and said, "Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low, and I am in great distress; for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot return." 36 And he said to me, "My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do for me as you have spoken after the Lord has taken vengeance on your enemies, from the sons of Ammon." 37 And she said to my father, "Let this thing be done for me, ease me from two new ones, and I will go down to the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions." 38 And he said, "Go," and he sent her two months, and she went and her companions, and she wept over her virginity on the mountains. 39 And it was, at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow, which he vowed; and she had not known a man, and it became a statute in Israel. 40 For four days in the year, the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.