1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a woman who was a prostitute, and Gilead had fathered Jephthah.
2 Gilead's wife bore him sons too, and when his wife's sons were grown, they drove Jephthah away, telling him, "You will have no inheritance in our father's house, because you are another woman's son."
3 Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob. Idle men collected around Jephthah and went out raiding with him.
4 After a time the children of Ammon went to war with Israel.
5 When the children of Ammon went to war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the land of Tob.
6 They told Jephthah, "Come and be our leader, so we can fight the children of Ammon."
7 Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, "Was it not you who hated me and drove me from my father's house? Why come to me now, when you are in trouble?"
8 The elders of Gilead told Jephthah, "That is why we have come back to you now: go with us, fight the children of Ammon, and become our head, over everyone who lives in Gilead."
9 Jephthah told the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight the children of Ammon and the LORD hands them over to me, I am the one who will be your head."
10 The elders of Gilead told Jephthah, "The LORD is the one who hears between us, if we do not do exactly as you say."
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and leader. Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.
12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon to say, "What is between you and me, that you have come to me to make war on my land?"
13 The king of the children of Ammon told Jephthah's messengers, "Because Israel seized my land when it came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan. Now give those lands back in peace."
14 Jephthah sent messengers once more to the king of the children of Ammon,
15 saying to him, "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not seize the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon.
16 When they came up out of Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom: 'Let me pass through your land, please.' But the king of Edom would not hear of it. They sent to the king of Moab too, and he was unwilling. So Israel stayed on at Kadesh.
18 Then it traveled through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the eastern side of the land of Moab, and encamped across the Arnon; they did not enter Moab's territory, for the Arnon was Moab's border.
19 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, 'Let us pass through your land, please, to our own place.'
20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; Sihon gathered all his people, encamped at Jahaz, and made war on Israel.
21 The LORD, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and all his people over to Israel, and they defeated them; and Israel took over the whole land of the Amorites who lived in that land.
22 They took over the whole territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
23 So now, when the LORD, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites before his people Israel, are you going to take it over?
24 Do you not take over whatever Chemosh your god gives you to take? So whatever the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, that we will take over.
25 Are you now any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel? Did he ever make war on them?
26 For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon and its towns, in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon. Why did you not take them back in all that time?
27 I have not sinned against you; it is you who wrong me by making war on me. Let the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
28 But the king of the children of Ammon paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.
29 The Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, crossed to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead crossed over toward the children of Ammon.
30 Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, saying, "If you will surely hand the children of Ammon over to me,
31 whatever comes out the door of my house to meet me when I return safe from the children of Ammon will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."
32 Jephthah crossed over toward the children of Ammon to fight them, and the LORD handed them over to him.
33 He struck them, from Aroer to where you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, a very heavy blow. Thus the children of Ammon were brought low before the children of Israel.
34 Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his one and only; apart from her he had no son or daughter.
35 When he saw her he tore his clothes and said, "Ah, my daughter! You have brought me to my knees; you are among those who trouble me. I have opened my mouth to the LORD and cannot go back."
36 She said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD. Do to me what came out of your mouth, now that the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, the children of Ammon."
37 She also said to her father, "Let this be done for me: let me be for two months, and I will go and wander on the mountains and weep over my virginity, I and my friends."
38 "Go," he said, and let her go for two months. She went with her friends and wept over her virginity on the mountains.
39 When the two months were over, she came back to her father, and he carried out on her the vow he had made. She had not known a man. And it became a practice in Israel:
40 from year to year the daughters of Israel go out to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days each year.