¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.

² And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of another woman.

³ Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him.

⁴ And it came to pass after a while, that 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 unto Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

⁷ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?

⁸ And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

⁹ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Jehovah deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Jehovah shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.

¹¹ Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spake all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah.

¹² And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come unto me to fight against my land?

¹³ And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan: now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably.

¹⁴ And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon;

¹⁵ and he said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah: Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,

¹⁶ but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;

¹⁷ then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land; but the king of Edom hearkened not. And in like manner he sent unto the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh.

¹⁸ Then 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 came not within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹ And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land unto my place.

²⁰ But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²¹ And Jehovah, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²² And they possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto the Jordan.

²³ So now Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?

²⁴ Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever Jehovah our god hath dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.

²⁵ And now art thou 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 its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; wherefore did ye not recover them within that time?

²⁷ I therefore have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: Jehovah, the Judge, be Judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸ Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto 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 unto the children of Ammon.

³⁰ And Jephthah vowed a vow unto Jehovah, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,

³¹ then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Jehovah's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.

³² So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Jehovah delivered them into his hand.

³³ And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

³⁴ And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house; and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵ And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me; for I have opened my mouth unto Jehovah, and I cannot go back.

³⁶ And she said unto him, My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto Jehovah; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee on thine enemies, even on the children of Ammon.

³⁷ And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.

³⁸ And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.

³⁹ And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew not man. And it was a custom in Israel,

⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

¹ Then came near the heads of fathers' [houses] of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel;

² and they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, Jehovah commanded Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.

³ And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of Jehovah, these cities with their suburbs.

⁴ And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites: and the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.

⁵ And the rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.

⁶ And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.

⁷ The children of Merari according to their families had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.

⁸ And the children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as Jehovah commanded by Moses.

⁹ And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are [here] mentioned by name:

¹⁰ and they were for the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for theirs was the first lot.

¹¹ And they gave them Kiriath-arba, [which Arba was] the father of Anak (the same is Hebron), in the hill-country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it.

¹² But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.

¹³ And unto the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with its suburbs,

¹⁴ and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs,

¹⁵ and Holon with its suburbs, and Debir with its suburbs,

¹⁶ and Ain with its suburbs, and Juttah with its suburbs, [and] Beth-shemesh with its suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes.

¹⁷ And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs,

¹⁸ Anathoth with its suburbs, and Almon with its suburbs; four cities.

¹⁹ All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

²⁰ And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the rest of the children of Kohath, they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.

²¹ And they gave them Shechem with its suburbs in the hill-country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Gezer with its suburbs,

²² and Kibzaim with its suburbs, and Beth-horon with its suburbs; four cities.

²³ And out of the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its suburbs, Gibbethon with its suburbs,

²⁴ Aijalon with its suburbs, Gath-rimmon with its suburbs; four cities.

²⁵ And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its suburbs, and Gath-rimmon with its suburbs; two cities.

²⁶ All the cities of the families of the rest of the children of Kohath were ten with their suburbs.

²⁷ And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh [they gave] Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be-eshterah with its suburbs; two cities.

²⁸ And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its suburbs, Daberath with its suburbs,

²⁹ Jarmuth with its suburbs, En-gannim with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁰ And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its suburbs, Abdon with its suburbs,

³¹ Helkath with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs; four cities.

³² And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Hammoth-dor with its suburbs, and Kartan with its suburbs; three cities.

³³ All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

³⁴ And unto the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its suburbs, and Kartah with its suburbs,

³⁵ Dimnah with its suburbs, Nahalal with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁶ And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its suburbs, and Jahaz with its suburbs,

³⁷ Kedemoth with its suburbs, and Mephaath with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁸ And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Mahanaim with its suburbs,

³⁹ Heshbon with its suburbs, Jazer with its suburbs; four cities in all.

⁴⁰ All [these were] the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites; and their lot was twelve cities.

⁴¹ All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs.

⁴² These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus it was with all these cities.

⁴³ So Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.

⁴⁴ And Jehovah gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; Jehovah delivered all their enemies into their hand.

⁴⁵ There failed not aught of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.