¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.

² Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, "You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman."

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

⁴ It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵ It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob;

⁶ and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon."

⁷ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?"

⁸ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

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

¹⁰ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your 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 spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.

¹² Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, "What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?"

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

¹⁴ Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;

¹⁵ and he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take 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 to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;

¹⁷ then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let me pass through your land;' but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel stayed 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 didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹ Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to my place.'

²⁰ But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²¹ Yahweh, the 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 They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.

²³ So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?

²⁴ Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our god has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.

²⁵ 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 lived 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; why didn't you recover them within that time?

²⁷ I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. Yahweh, the Judge, be Judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."

²⁸ However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

²⁹ Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on 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 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, "If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,

³¹ then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh'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 Yahweh delivered them into his hand.

³³ He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

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

³⁵ It happened, when he saw her, that he tore 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 Yahweh, and I can't go back."

³⁶ She said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon."

³⁷ She said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions."

³⁸ He said, "Go." He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

³⁹ It happened 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 was a virgin. 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 Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,

² saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.

³ All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.

⁴ For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.

⁵ But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,

⁶ and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

⁷ the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.

⁸ But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.

⁹ Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.

¹⁰ Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.

¹¹ But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.

¹² Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

¹⁴ "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.

¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

¹⁶ "Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'

¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

¹⁸ 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?'

¹⁹ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

²⁰ He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.

²¹ He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living in it.

²² He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.

²³ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

²⁴ You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

²⁵ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.

²⁶ You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

²⁷ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,

³⁰ and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'

³¹ Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.

³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

³³ You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

³⁴ Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;

³⁵ that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

³⁶ Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷ "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

³⁸ Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"