Judges:11

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* Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor , and he was the son of an harlot : and Gilead begat Jephthah . * And Gilead ' wife bore him sons ; and his wife ' sons grew up , and they thrust out Jephthah , and said to him , You shall not inherit in our father ' house ; for you are the son of a strange woman . * Then Jephthah fled from his brothers , and dwelled in the land of Tob : and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah , and went out with him . * And it came to pass in process of time , that the children of Ammon made war against Israel . * And it was so , that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel , the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob : * And they said to Jephthah , Come , and be our captain , that we may fight with the children of Ammon . * And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead , Did not you hate me , and expel me out of my father ' house ? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress ? * And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah , Therefore we turn again to you now , that you may go with us , and fight against the children of Ammon , and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead . * And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead , If you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon , and the LORD deliver them before me , shall I be your head ? * And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah , The LORD be witness between us , if we do not so according to your words . * 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 . * And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon , saying , What have you to do with me , that you are come against me to fight in my land ? * And the king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah , Because Israel took away my land , when they came up out of Egypt , from Arnon even to Jabbok , and to Jordan : now therefore restore those lands again peaceably . * And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon : * And said to him , Thus said Jephthah , Israel took not away the land of Moab , nor the land of the children of Ammon : * But when Israel came up from Egypt , and walked through the wilderness to the Red sea , and came to Kadesh ; * Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom , saying , Let me , I pray you , pass through your land : but the king of Edom would not listen thereto . And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab : but he would not consent : and Israel stayed in Kadesh . * 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 . * And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites , the king of Heshbon ; and Israel said to him , Let us pass , we pray you , through your land into my place . * But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast : but Sihon gathered all his people together , and pitched in Jahaz , and fought against Israel . * 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 . * And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites , from Arnon even to Jabbok , and from the wilderness even to Jordan . * So now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel , and should you possess it ? * Will not you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess ? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us , them will we possess . * And now are you 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 , * While Israel dwelled in Heshbon and her towns , and in Aroer and her towns , and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon , three hundred years ? why therefore did you not recover them within that time ? * Why I have not sinned against you , but you do me wrong to war against me : the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon . * However , the king of the children of Ammon listened not to the words of Jephthah which he sent him . * Then the Spirit of the LORD 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 . * And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD , and said , If you shall without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands , * Then it shall be , that whatever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me , when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , shall surely be the LORD ', and I will offer it up for a burnt offering . * So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them ; and the LORD delivered them into his hands . * And he smote them from Aroer , even till you come 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 . * And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house , and , behold , his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances : and she was his only child ; beside her he had neither son nor daughter . * And it came to pass , when he saw her , that he rent his clothes , and said , Alas , my daughter ! you have brought me very low , and you are one of them that trouble me : for I have opened my mouth to the LORD , and I cannot go back . * And she said to him , My father , if you have opened your mouth to the LORD , do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth ; for as much as the LORD has taken vengeance for you of your enemies , even of the children of Ammon . * 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 on the mountains , and mourn my virginity , I and my fellows . * And he said , Go . And he sent her away for two months : and she went with her companions , and bewailed her virginity on the mountains . * 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 , * That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year .

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