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 And when king Arad the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

² And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

³ And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

⁴ And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

⁵ And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have ye brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul lotheth this light bread.

⁶ And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.

⁷ Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

⁹ And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

¹⁰ And the children of Israel moved forward, and pitched in Oboth.

¹¹ And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, towards the sun-rising.

¹² From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared.

¹³ From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴ Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

¹⁵ And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.

¹⁶ And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well of which the LORD spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water.

¹⁷ Then Israel sung this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye to it:

¹⁸ The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staffs. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah:

¹⁹ And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth:

²⁰ And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh towards Jeshimon.

²¹ And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

²² Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high-way, until we have past thy borders.

²³ And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon collected all his people, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel:

²⁴ And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon to Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.

²⁵ And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.

²⁶ For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to Arnon.

²⁷ Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared.

²⁸ For there has a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.

²⁹ Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.

³⁰ We have shot at them; Heshbon has perished even to Dibon, and we have laid them waste even to Nophah, which reacheth to Medeba.

³¹ Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.

³² And Moses sent to explore Jaazer, and they took its villages, and drove out the Amorites that were there.

³³ And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.

³⁴ And the LORD said to Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.

³⁵ So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left to him alive: and they possessed his land.