Judges 11

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a man of great strength; and he was the son of a woman who was a prostitute, and she bore Jephthah to Gilead. 2 And Gilead's wife bore him sons; and the sons of his wife grew up, and they threw Jephthah out and said to him, “You are not going to inherit anything in our father's house, because you are the son of a woman kept for company.” 3 And Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob; and worthless men gathered around Jephthah, and they went out with him. [a]

5 And when the children of Ammon drew up for battle against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. 6 And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, and let us draw up for battle against the children of Ammon.” 7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Was it not you who hated me and threw me out of my father's house and sent me away from you? So why have you come to me now, when you are in need?” 8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is exactly why we have turned back to you now: you are to go with us and draw up for battle against the children of Ammon, and be our ruler — over everyone living in Gilead.”

9 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you are taking me back to draw up for battle against the children of Ammon, and the Lord gives them up before me, then I am to be your ruler.” 10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Let the Lord be listening between us, if we do not do exactly as you have said.” 11 And Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and leader; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah. [b]

12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What is there between me and you, that you have come against me to draw up for battle in my land?” [c] 13 And the king of the children of Ammon said to Jephthah's messengers, “Because Israel took my land when he came up out of Egypt — from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as the Jordan. Now give them back peaceably, and I will go away.”

14 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon again, 15 and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon. 16 For when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness as far as the Sea of Siph, and came to Kadesh. [d] 17 And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let me pass through your land, please’; and the king of Edom would not listen. And Israel sent to the king of Moab as well, and he was not willing. So Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18 And Israel went through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came at the land of Moab from the east, and camped beyond the Arnon; and they did not come inside the borders of Moab, because the Arnon is the border of Moab.

19 And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass through your land, please, to our own place.’ 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border; and Sihon gathered all his people, and they camped at Jahaz, and he drew up for battle against Israel. 21 And the Lord God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and Israel struck him down; and Israel took as its inheritance all the land of the Amorite who lived in that land — 22 from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.

23 And now the Lord God of Israel has driven the Amorite out from before his people Israel — and you are going to inherit his land? 24 Will you not inherit whatever Chemosh your god gives you to inherit? And all those whom the Lord our God has driven out from before us — those we are going to inherit. 25 And now, are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever pick a quarrel with Israel, or ever go to war against him, 26 while Israel lived in Heshbon and its borders, and in the land of Aroer and its borders, and in all the towns along the Jordan — three hundred years? Why did you not rescue them in all that time? 27 And now, I have not sinned against you; it is you who are doing me a wrong, by drawing up for battle against me. Let the Lord, who judges, judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.” 28 But the king of the children of Ammon did not listen to the words Jephthah sent to him.

29 And the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed by the lookout of Gilead and on over to the far side of the children of Ammon. 30 And Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord and said, “If you really do give the children of Ammon into my hand, 31 then whoever comes out — whoever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I come back in peace from the children of Ammon — he will be the Lord's: I will offer him up as a whole burnt offering.” [e]

32 And Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to draw up for battle against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer until you come to the Arnon — twenty towns in all — and as far as Abel-keramim, with a very great slaughter; and the children of Ammon were brought low before the children of Israel.

34 And Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his own house — and there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with hand-drums and dancing. And she was his only child; he had no other son or daughter. 35 And when he saw her he tore his clothes and said, “Ah, ah, my daughter! You have brought trouble on me, deep trouble, and you yourself are in my trouble. I have opened my mouth to the Lord against you, and I cannot take it back.”

36 And she said to him, “Father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me exactly as it came out of your mouth, now that the Lord has carried out vengeance for you on your enemies, on the children of Ammon.” 37 And she said to her father, “Let my father do this one thing: leave me alone for two months, and I will go down into the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 And he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months. And she went, she and her companions, and she wept for her virginity on the mountains.

39 And at the end of the two months she came back to her father, and he did with her the vow he had vowed; and she had never known a man. And it became a decree in Israel: 40 from year to year the daughters of Israel would go to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.