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 bore him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said to him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

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

⁴ And it came to pass in process of time, 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 bring 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, Did ye not hate me, and expel me from my father's house; and why have ye come to me now when ye are in distress?

⁸ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest 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 ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The LORD be a witness between us, if we do not so according to thy 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 the LORD in Mizpeh.

¹² And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou hast 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 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 saith 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 thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken to it. 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 compassed 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 thee, through thy land to my place.

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

²¹ And the LORD 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 borders of the Amorites, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to Jordan.

²³ So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldst thou possess it?

²⁴ Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our god shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

²⁵ And now art thou any thing 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 borders of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?

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

²⁸ But, the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

²⁹ Then the Spirit of the LORD 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 the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,

³¹ Then it shall be, that whatever cometh out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it for a burnt-offering.

³² So Jephthah 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 even till thou comest 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 behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside 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 to the LORD, and I cannot go back.

³⁶ And she said to him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thy 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 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that 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.

¹ Moreover, Josiah kept a passover to the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

² And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,

³ And said to the Levites that taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,

⁴ And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵ And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.

⁶ So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

⁷ And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover-offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance.

⁸ And his princes gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen.

⁹ Conaniah also, and Shemaiah, and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jehiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for passover-offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment.

¹¹ And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.

¹² And they removed the burnt-offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen.

¹³ And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings they boiled in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.

¹⁴ And afterwards they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering burnt-offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah.

¹⁷ And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

¹⁸ And there was no passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

²⁰ After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

²¹ But he sent embassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house with which I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he may not destroy thee.

²² Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him, and hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

²³ And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am severely wounded.

²⁴ His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵ And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women have spoken of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations.

²⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD,

²⁷ And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.