1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a prostitute woman, and Gilead had fathered Jephthah.
2And the wife of Gilead bore him sons, and when the sons of the wife grew up they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in the house of our father, for you are the son of another woman.”
3So Jephthah fled from before his brothers and settled in the land of Tob. And worthless men gathered themselves to Jephthah, and they went out with him.
4And it happened after some time that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel.
5And it happened, when the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the land of Tob.
6And they said to Jephthah, “Come, and be for us a commander, that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.”
7But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
8And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have now turned back to you: come with us and fight against the sons of Ammon, and you shall be for us a head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
9And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the sons of Ammon, and Yahweh gives them over before me, then I myself will be your head.”
10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be a witness between us if we do not do just as you have said.”
11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and commander; and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh at Mizpah.
12And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What is between me and you, that you have come against me to fight in my land?”
13And the king of the sons of Ammon said to Jephthah’s messengers, “It is because Israel took my land when he came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as the Jordan; so now, restore it peaceably.”
14And Jephthah once again sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon,
15and he said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the sons of Ammon.
16For when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds and came to Kadesh.
17Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Let me pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. He also sent to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling; so Israel remained at Kadesh.
18Then he went through the wilderness and skirted around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and he came to the east of the land of Moab and camped beyond the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
19Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, “Let us pass through your land to my place.”
20But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped at Jahaz and fought against Israel.
21And Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them down; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that land.
22So they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.
23So now, since Yahweh, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, would you take possession of it?
24Is it not so that whatever Chemosh your god dispossesses for you, that you take possession of? So all that Yahweh our God has dispossessed before us, that we will possess.
25And now, are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
26While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its daughter-villages, and in Aroer and its daughter-villages, and in all the cities that are along the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years — why did you not recover them during that time?
27I myself have not sinned against you, yet you are doing me wrong by fighting against me. May Yahweh, the Judge, judge this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.”
28But the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he had sent to him.
29Then the Spirit of Yahweh came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; he passed through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over toward the sons of Ammon.
30And Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, “If you will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand,
31then whatever comes out—that which comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon—shall belong to Yahweh, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
32So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and Yahweh gave them into his hand.
33And he struck them from Aroer to where you come to Minnith—twenty cities—and as far as Abel-keramim, a very great blow. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.
34When Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dances! And she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
35And when he saw her, he tore his garments and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I cannot turn back.”
36And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, on the sons of Ammon.”
37And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and go down upon the mountains and weep over my virginity, I and my companions.”
38And he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went, she and her companions, and wept over her virginity upon the mountains.
39And it happened at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow that he had vowed. And she had not known a man. And it became a custom in Israel:
40from year to year the daughters of Israel go to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.
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