1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot: and Gilead fathered Jephthah.
2 And Gilead's wife bore him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of a strange woman.
3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
4 In process of time, the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5 And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:
6 And they said to Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? And why are you come to me now when you are in distress?
8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and Jehovah deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Jehovah be witness between us, if we do not do so according to your words.
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before Jehovah in Mizpeh.
12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come against me to fight in my land?
13 And the king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and to Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
14 And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon:
15 And said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, Nor the land of the children of Ammon:
16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness to the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray you, pass through your land: but the king of Edom would not listen. And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
18 Then they went along 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 pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
19 And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land into my place.
20 But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21 And Jehovah 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.
22 And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to Jordan.
23 So now Jehovah God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess it?
24 Will not you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomever Jehovah our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
25 And now 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,
26 While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that are along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? Why therefore did you not recover them within that time?
27 Why I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Jehovah the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
28 However that may be, the king of the children of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon 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 Ammon.
30 And Jephthah vowed a vow to Jehovah, and said, If you shall without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,
31 Then it shall be, that whatever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be Jehovah 's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
32 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Jehovah delivered them into his hands.
33 And he struck them from Aroer, even until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 When he saw her, he rent 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 Jehovah, and I cannot go back.
36 And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to Jehovah, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth; forasmuch as Jehovah has taken vengeance for you of your enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
37 And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,
40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.