1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
2Gilead's wife also bore him sons. When his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You will not inherit anything in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman."
3So Jephthah ran away from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Worthless men gathered around Jephthah and went out with him.
4After some time the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob.
6They said to Jephthah, "Come and be our captain, so that we can fight against the children of Ammon."
7Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? Why do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?"
8The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is why we have turned to you now. Come with us and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the people who live in Gilead."
9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your head?"
10The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD be witness between us if we do not do just as you say."
11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
12Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, "What quarrel do you have with me, that you have come against me to fight in my land?"
13The king of the children of Ammon answered Jephthah's messengers, "Because Israel took my land away when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon as far as Jabbok, and as far as the Jordan. Now give those lands back peaceably."
14Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon,
15and said to him, "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, or the land of the children of Ammon."
16"But when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked 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 would not listen. In the same way they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not agree. So Israel stayed in Kadesh."
18"Then they went on through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They came by the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of Arnon. But they did not come inside the border of Moab, for Arnon was the border of Moab."
19"Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to our own place.'"
20"But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his land. Sihon gathered all his people together, camped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel."
21"And the LORD God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them down. So Israel took over all the land of the Amorites, the people who lived in that country."
22"They took over all the land of the Amorites, from Arnon as far as Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan."
23"So the LORD God of Israel drove out the Amorites from before his people Israel. And should you take possession of it?"
24"Will you not keep whatever Chemosh your god gives you to keep? So whoever the LORD our God drives out from before us, their land we will take."
25"And now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?"
26"Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities along the banks of Arnon, for three hundred years. Why did you not take them back during that time?"
27"So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong by making war on me. May the LORD, the Judge, judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
28But the king of the children of Ammon would not listen to the words Jephthah sent him.
29Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went on to the children of Ammon.
30And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If you will without fail give the children of Ammon into my hands,"
31"then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, will surely belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."
32So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hands.
33He struck them down from Aroer as far as Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were brought low before the children of Israel.
34Jephthah came to his house at Mizpeh, and look, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. She was his only child. Apart from her he had neither son nor daughter.
35When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take it back."
36She said to him, "My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me what you said with your own mouth, since the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the children of Ammon."
37And she said to her father, "Let this be done for me: leave me alone for two months, so that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my friends."
38He said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months. She went with her companions and wept for her virginity on the mountains.
39At the end of two months she came back to her father, and he did with her as he had vowed. And she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel
40that the daughters of Israel went every year to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.