Judges - Chapter 11

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. 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." 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. 11:4 It happened after a while, that the children of Amun made war against Yisrael. 11:5 It was so, that when the children of Amun made war against Yisrael, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; 11:6 and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Amun."

11:7 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "did not you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?"

11:8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Amun; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

11:9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Amun, and Mar-Yah deliver them before me, shall I be your head?"

11:10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Mar-Yah shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do."

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 Mar-Yah in Mizpah.

11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Amun, saying, "What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?"

11:13 The king of the children of Amun answered to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Yisrael 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 that territory again peaceably."

11:14 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Amun; 11:15 and he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Yisrael did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Amun, 11:16 but when they came up from Egypt, and Yisrael went through the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds, and came to Kadesh; 11:17 then Yisrael sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let me pass through your land;' but the king of Edom did not listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Yisrael stayed in Kadesh. 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 did not come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 11:19 Yisrael sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Yisrael said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to my place.' 11:20 But Sihon did not trust Yisrael to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Yisrael. 11:21 Mar-Yah, the God of Yisrael, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Yisrael, and they struck them: so Yisrael possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 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. 11:23 So now Mar-Yah, the God of Yisrael, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Yisrael, and should you possess them? 11:24 Won't you possess that which Chemosh your deity gives you to possess? So whoever Mar-Yah our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 11:25 Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Yisrael, or did he ever fight against them? 11:26 While Yisrael 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 did not you recover them within that time? 11:27 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. Mar-Yah, the Judge, be judge this day between the B'nai Yisrael and the children of Amun."

11:28 However the king of the children of Amun did not listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 11:29 Then the Spirit of Mar-Yah 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 Amun.

11:30 Jephthah vowed a vow to Mar-Yah, and said, "If you will indeed deliver the children of Amun into my hand, 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 Amun, it shall be Mar-Yah's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."

11:32 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Amun to fight against them; and Mar-Yah delivered them into his hand. 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 Amun were subdued before the B'nai Yisrael.

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. 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 Mar-Yah, and I can't go back."

11:36 She said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to Mar-Yah; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Mar-Yah has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Amun." 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."

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. 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 Yisrael, 11:40 that the daughters of Yisrael went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.