1   Jephthah the Gileadite was a great warrior; he was the son of Gilead by a prostitute. 2   But Gilead had a wife who bore him several sons, and when they grew up they drove Jephthah away; they said to him, ‘You have no inheritance in our father's house; you are another woman's son.’ 3   So Jephthah, to escape his brothers, went away and settled in the land of Tob, and swept up a number of idle men who followed him.

4    5   The time came when the Ammonites made war on Israel, and when

Israel under the judges the fighting began, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6   They said to him, ‘Come and be our commander so that we can fight the Ammonites.’ 7   But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ‘You drove me from my father's house in hatred. Why come to me now when you are in trouble?’ 8   ‘It is because of that’, they replied, ‘that we have turned to you now. Come with us and fight the Ammonites, and become lord over all the inhabitants of Gilead.’ 9   Jephthah said to them, ‘If you ask me back to fight the Ammonites and if the Lord delivers them into my hands, then I will be your lord.’ 10   The elders of Gilead said again to Jephthah, ‘We swear by the Lord, who shall be witness between us, that we will do what you say.’ 11   Jephthah then went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their lord and commander. And at Mizpah, in the presence of the Lord, Jephthah repeated all that he had said.

12   Jephthah sent a mission to the king of Ammon to ask what quarrel he had with them that made him invade their country. 13   The king gave Jephthah's men this answer: ‘When the Israelites came up from Egypt, they took our land from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan. 14   Give us back these lands in peace.’ Jephthah sent a second mission to the king of Ammon, and they said, ‘This is Jephthah's answer: 15   Israel did not take either the Moabite country or the Ammonite country. 16   When they came up from Egypt, the Israelites passed through the wilderness to the Red Sea ^note and came to Kadesh. 17   They then sent envoys to the king of Edom asking him to grant them passage through his country, but the king of Edom would not hear of it. They sent also to the king of Moab, but he was not willing; so Israel remained in Kadesh. 18   They then passed through the wilderness, skirting Edom and Moab, and kept to the east of Moab. They encamped beside the Arnon, but they did not enter Moabite territory, because the Arnon is the frontier of Moab. 19   Israel then sent envoys to the king of the Amorites, Sihon king of Heshbon, asking him to give them free passage through his country to their destination. 20   But Sihon would not grant Israel free passage through his territory; he mustered all his people, encamped in Jahaz and fought Israel. 21   But the Lord the God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel; they defeated them and occupied all the territory of the Amorites in that region. 22   They took all the Amorite territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23   The Lord the God of Israel drove out the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. And do you now propose to take their place? 24   It is for you to possess whatever Kemosh your god gives you; and all that the Lord our God gave us as we advanced is ours. 25   For that matter, are you any better than

Israel under the judges Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or attack them? 26   For three hundred years Israelites have lived in Heshbon and its dependent villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns by the Arnon. 27   Why did you not oust ^note them during all that time? We have done you no wrong; it is you who are doing us wrong by attacking us. The Lord who is judge will judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.’ 28   But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to the message which Jephthah had sent him.

29   Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, by Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh over to the Ammonites. 30   Jephthah made this vow to the Lord: ‘If thou wilt deliver the Ammonites into my hands, 31   then the first creature that comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return from them in peace shall be the Lord's; I will offer that as a whole-offering.’ 32   So Jephthah crossed over to attack the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 33   He routed them with great slaughter all the way from Aroer to Minnith, taking twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. 34   Thus Israel crushed Ammon. But when Jephthah came to his house in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him with tambourines and dances but his daughter, and she his only child; he had no other, neither son nor daughter. 35   When he saw her, he rent his clothes and said, ‘Alas, my daughter, you have broken my heart, such trouble you have brought upon me. I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot go back.’ 36   She replied, ‘Father, you have made a vow to the Lord; do to me what you have solemnly vowed, since the Lord has avenged you on the Ammonites, your enemies. 37   But, father, grant me this one favour. For two months let me be, that I may roam ^note the hills with my companions and mourn that I must die a virgin.’ 38   ‘Go’, he said, and he let her depart for two months. She went with her companions and mourned her virginity on the hills. 39   At the end of two months she came back to her father, and he fulfilled the vow he had made; she died a virgin. 40   It became a tradition that the daughters of Israel should go year by year and commemorate the fate of Jephthah's daughter, four days in every year.

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