Judges 11

1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. He was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Jephthah.Cross-references: Judg 6:12 · 2Ki 5:1 · Heb 11:32

2Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”Cross-references: Gen 12:10 · Deut 23:2 · Prov 2:16 · Prov 5:3 · Prov 5:20 · Prov 6:24 · +1 more

3Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.Cross-references: Judg 9:4 · 1Sam 22:2 · 1Sam 27:2 · 1Sam 30:22 · 2Sam 10:6 · 2Sam 10:8 · +2 more

4After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Israel.Cross-references: Judg 10:9

5When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob.Cross-references: Judg 10:9 · Judg 10:17 · 1Sam 10:27 · 1Sam 11:6 · 1Sam 11:12 · Ps 118:22 · +2 more

6They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.”

7Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”Cross-references: Gen 26:27 · Gen 37:27 · Gen 45:4 · Prov 17:17 · Isa 60:14 · Acts 7:9 · +1 more

8The 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 Ammon. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”Cross-references: Ex 8:8 · Ex 8:28 · Ex 9:28 · Ex 10:17 · Judg 10:18 · 1Ki 13:6 · +1 more

9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivers them before me, will I be your head?”Cross-references: Num 32:20

10The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahweh will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”Cross-references: Gen 16:5 · Gen 21:23 · Gen 31:50 · Gen 31:53 · Ex 20:7 · Deut 1:16 · +8 more

11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.Cross-references: Josh 15:38 · Judg 10:17 · Judg 20:1 · 1Sam 10:17 · 1Sam 11:15 · 1Sam 23:9 · +4 more

12Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”Cross-references: Num 20:14 · Num 21:21 · Deut 2:26 · Deut 20:10 · 2Ki 14:8 · Prov 25:8 · +1 more

13The king of the children of Ammon answered 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 that territory again peaceably.”Cross-references: Gen 32:22 · Num 21:24 · Deut 2:37 · Deut 3:16 · Prov 19:5 · Prov 19:9

14Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;Cross-references: Ps 120:7 · Rom 12:18 · Heb 12:14 · 1Pet 3:11

15and he said to him, “Jephthah says: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon;Cross-references: Num 21:13 · Num 21:27 · Deut 2:9 · Deut 2:19 · 2Chr 20:10 · Acts 24:12

16but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh,Cross-references: Gen 14:7 · Num 13:26 · Num 14:25 · Num 20:1 · Deut 1:40 · Deut 1:46 · +1 more

17then 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 refused; so Israel stayed in Kadesh.Cross-references: Num 20:1 · Num 20:14 · Deut 2:4 · Deut 2:29 · Josh 24:9

18Then 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.Cross-references: Num 20:22 · Num 21:4 · Num 22:36 · Num 33:37 · Deut 2:1

19Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’Cross-references: Num 21:21 · Deut 2:26 · Deut 3:1 · Josh 13:8

20But 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.Cross-references: Num 21:23 · Deut 2:32 · Josh 13:15 · Neh 9:22 · Ps 135:10 · Ps 136:17

21Yahweh, 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.

22They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.Cross-references: Deut 2:36

23So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?

24Won’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.Cross-references: Num 21:29 · Deut 9:4 · Deut 18:12 · Josh 3:10 · 1Ki 11:7 · Ps 44:2 · +4 more

25Now 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?Cross-references: Num 22:2 · Deut 23:3 · Josh 24:9 · Mic 6:5

26Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the side of the Arnon for three hundred years! Why didn’t you recover them within that time?Cross-references: Num 21:25 · Deut 2:24 · Deut 2:36 · Deut 3:2 · Deut 3:6 · Josh 11:18 · +11 more

27Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May Yahweh the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”Cross-references: Gen 16:5 · Gen 18:25 · Gen 31:53 · 1Sam 2:10 · 1Sam 24:12 · 1Sam 24:15 · +17 more

28However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.Cross-references: 2Ki 14:11 · Prov 16:18

29Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.Cross-references: Num 11:25 · Judg 3:10 · Judg 6:34 · Judg 10:17 · Judg 13:25 · 1Sam 10:10 · +2 more

30Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,Cross-references: Gen 28:20 · Num 30:2 · 1Sam 1:11 · Eccl 5:1 · Eccl 5:4

31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of 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.”Cross-references: Lev 27:2 · Lev 27:11 · Lev 27:28 · Deut 23:18 · 1Sam 1:11 · 1Sam 1:28 · +5 more

32So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.Cross-references: Judg 1:4 · Judg 2:18 · Judg 3:10

33He 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.Cross-references: Deut 2:36 · Ezek 27:17

34Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.Cross-references: Ex 15:20 · Judg 5:1 · Judg 10:17 · Judg 11:11 · 1Sam 18:6 · Ps 68:25 · +8 more

35When he saw her, 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.”Cross-references: Gen 37:29 · Gen 37:34 · Gen 42:36 · Lev 27:28 · Num 30:2 · Judg 21:1 · +8 more

36She 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.”Cross-references: Judg 16:28 · 2Sam 18:19 · 2Sam 18:31 · 2Sam 19:30 · Acts 20:24 · Acts 21:13 · +2 more

37Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”Cross-references: 1Sam 1:6 · Luke 1:25

38He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in IsraelCross-references: Lev 27:28 · Deut 12:31 · Judg 11:31 · 1Sam 1:11 · 1Sam 1:22 · 1Sam 1:24 · +3 more

40that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.Cross-references: Judg 5:11 · 1Ki 9:25