¹ There was at that time Jephte the Galaadite, a most valiant man and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, and his father was Galaad.

² Now Galaad had a wife of whom he had sons: who after they were grown up, thrust out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother.

³ Then he fled and avoided them and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men, and robbers, and they followed him as their prince.

⁴ In those days the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵ And as they pressed hard upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to fetch Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them:

⁶ And they said to him: Come thou and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon.

⁷ And he answered them: Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father's house, and now you are come to me constrained by necessity?

⁸ And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be head over all the inhabitants of Galaad.

⁹ Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my band, shall I be your prince?

¹⁰ They answered him: The Lord who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.

¹¹ Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.

¹² And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land?

¹³ And he answered them: Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the confines of the Arnon unto the Jaboc and the Jordan: now therefore restore the same peaceably to me.

¹⁴ And Jephte again sent word by them, and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon:

¹⁵ Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

¹⁶ But when they came up out of Egypt, he walked through the desert to the Red Sea and came into Cades.

¹⁷ And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me to pass through thy land. But he would not condescend to his request. He sent also to the king of Moab, who likewise refused to give him passage. He abode therefore in Cades,

¹⁸ And went round the land of Edom at the side, and the land of Moab: and came over against the east coast of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon: and he would not enter the bounds of Moab.

¹⁹ So Israel sent messengers to Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon, and they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy land to the river.

²⁰ But he also despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude, went out against him to Jasa, and made strong opposition.

²¹ And the Lord delivered him with all his army into the hands of Israel, and he slew him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite the inhabitant of that country,

²² And all the coasts thereof from the Arnon to the Jaboc, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

²³ So the Lord the God of Israel destroyed the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess this land?

²⁴ Are not those things which thy god Chamos possesseth, due to thee by right? But what the Lord our god hath obtained by conquest, shall be our possession:

²⁵ Unless perhaps thou art better than Balac the son of Sephor king of Moab: or canst shew that he strove against Israel and fought against him,

²⁶ Whereas he hath dwelt in Hesebon, and the villages thereof, and in Aroer, and its villages, and in all the cities near the Jordan, for three hundred years. Why have you for so long a time attempted nothing about this claim?

²⁷ Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by declaring an unjust war against me. The Lord be judge and decide this day between Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸ And the king of the children of Ammon would not hearken to the words of Jephte, which he sent him by the messengers.

²⁹ Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad, and passing over from thence to the children of Ammon,

³⁰ He made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,

³¹ Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.

³² And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon, to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

³³ And he smote them from Aroer till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards, with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.

³⁴ And when Jephte returned into Maspha to his house, his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children.

³⁵ And when he saw her, he rent his garments, and said: Alas! my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing.

³⁶ And she answered him: My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the victory hath been granted to thee, and revenge of thy enemies.

³⁷ And she said to her father: Grant me only this which I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity with my companions.

³⁸ And he answered her: Go. And he sent her away for two months. And when she was gone with her comrades and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains.

³⁹ And the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man. From thence came a fashion in Israel, and a custom has been kept:

⁴⁰ That from year to year the daughters of Israel assemble together, and lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite for four days.

¹ And the Lord visited Sara, as he had promised: and fulfilled what he had spoken.

² And she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold her.

³ And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sara bore him, Isaac.

⁴ And he circumcised him the eighth day, as God had commanded him,

⁵ When he was a hundred years old: for at this age of his father was Isaac born.

⁶ And Sara said: God hath made a laughter for me: whosoever shall hear of it will laugh with me.

⁷ And again she said: Who would believe that Abraham should hear that Sara gave suck to a son, whom she bore to him in his old age.

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.

⁹ And when Sara had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham:

¹⁰ Cast out this bondwoman, and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

¹¹ Abraham took this grievously for his son.

¹² And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

¹³ But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed.

¹⁴ So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Bersabee.

¹⁵ And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there.

¹⁶ And she went her way, and sat over against him a great way off as far as a bow can carry, for she said: I will not see the boy die: and sitting over against, she lifted up her voice and wept.

¹⁷ And God heard the voice of the boy: and an angel of God called to Agar from heaven, saying: What art thou doing, Agar? fear not: for God hath heard the voice of the boy, from the place wherein he is.

¹⁸ Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand: for I will make him a great nation.

¹⁹ And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink.

²⁰ And God was with him: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became a young man, an archer.

²¹ And he dwelt in the wilderness of Pharan, and his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²² At the same time Abimelech, and Phicol the general of his army said to Abraham: God is with thee in all that thou dost.

²³ Swear therefore by God, that thou wilt not hurt me, nor my posterity, nor my stock: but according to the kindness that I have done to thee, thou shalt do to me, and to the land wherein thou hast lived a stranger.

²⁴ And Abraham said: I will swear.

²⁵ And he reproved Abimelech for a well of water, which his servants had taken away by force.

²⁶ And Abimelech answered: I knew not who did this thing: and thou didst not tell me, and I heard not of it till to day.

²⁷ And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech: and both of them made a league.

²⁸ And Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock.

²⁹ And Abimelech said to him: What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set apart?

³⁰ But he said: Thou shalt take seven ewe lambs at my hand: that they may be a testimony for me, that I dug this well.

³¹ Therefore that place was called Bersabee: because both of them did swear.

³² And they made a league for the well of oath.

³³ And Abimelech, and Phicol the general of his army arose and returned to the land of the Palestines. But Abraham planted a grove in Bersabee, and there called upon the name of the Lord God eternal.

³⁴ And he was a sojourner in the land of the Palestines many days.