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JUDGES 10:6-11:40\n\n6 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, 7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, 8 who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great distress. 10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, \u201cWe have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.\u201d \n11 The Lord replied, \u201cWhen the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!\u201d \n15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, \u201cWe have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.\u201d 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel\u2019s misery no longer. \n17 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, \u201cWhoever will launch the attack against the Ammonites will be the head of all those living in Gilead.\u201d\n11\tJephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead\u2019s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. \u201cYou are not going to get any inheritance in our family,\u201d they said, \u201cbecause you are the son of another woman.\u201d 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him. \n4 Some time later, when the Ammonites made war on Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 \u201cCome,\u201d they said, \u201cbe our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.\u201d \n7 Jephthah said to them, \u201cDidn\u2019t you hate me and drive me from my father\u2019s house? Why do you come to me now, when you\u2019re in trouble?\u201d \n8 The elders of Gilead said to him, \u201cNevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be our head over all who live in Gilead.\u201d \n9 Jephthah answered, \u201cSuppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me\u2014will I really be your head?\u201d \n10 The elders of Gilead replied, \u201cThe Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.\u201d 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.\n12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: \u201cWhat do you have against us that you have attacked our country?\u201d \n13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah\u2019s messengers, \u201cWhen Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.\u201d \n14 Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, 15 saying: \u201cThis is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, \u2018Give us permission to go through your country,\u2019 but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh. 18 \u201cNext they traveled through the desert, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border. 19 \u201cThen Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, \u2018Let us pass through your country to our own place.\u2019 20 Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. 21 \u201cThen the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel\u2019s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, 22 capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. 23 \u201cNow since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. 25 Are you better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? 26 For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn\u2019t you retake them during that time? 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.\u201d \n28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.\n29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: \u201cIf you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord\u2019s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.\u201d \n32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. \n34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, \u201cOh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.\u201d \n36 \u201cMy father,\u201d she replied, \u201cyou have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,\u201d she said. \u201cGive me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.\u201d \n38 \u201cYou may go,\u201d he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. \nFrom this comes the Israelite custom 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.