Judges:11

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* And Jephthae the Galaadite was (note :)Gr . exalted in strength (:note ) a mighty man ; and he was the son of a harlot , who bore Jephthae to Galaad . * And the wife of Galaad bore him sons ; and the sons of his wife grew up , and they cast out Jephthae , and said to him , Thou shalt not inherit in the house of our father , for thou art the son of a concubine . * And Jephthae fled from the face of his brethren , and dwelt in the land of Tob ; and vain men gathered to Jephthae , and went out with him . * And it came to pass when the children of Ammon prepared to fight with Israel , * that the elders of Galaad went to fetch Jephthae from the land of Tob . * And they said to Jephthae , Come , and be our head , and we will fight with the sons of Ammon . * And Jephthae said to the elders of Galaad , Did ye not hate me , and cast me out of my father ’s house , and banish me from you ? and wherefore are ye come to me now when ye want me ? * And the elders of Galaad said to Jephthae , Therefore have we now turned to thee , (note :)Gr . and thou shalt (:note ) that thou shouldest go with us , and fight against the sons of Ammon , and be our head over all the inhabitants of Galaad . * And Jephthae said to the elders of Galaad , If ye turn me back to fight with the children of Ammon , and the Lord should deliver them before me , then will I be your head . * And the elders of Galaad said to Jephthae , The Lord be witness between us , if we shall not do according to thy word . * And Jephthae went with the elders of Galaad , and the people made him head and ruler over them : and Jephthae spoke all his words before the Lord in Massepha . * And Jephthae sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon , saying , What have I to do with thee , that thou hast come against me to fight in my land ? * And the king of the children of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthae , Because Israel took my land when he went up out of Egypt , from Arnon to Jaboc , and to Jordan : now then return them peaceably and I will depart . * And Jephthae again sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon , * and said to him , Thus says Jephthae , Israel took not the land of Moab , nor the land of the children of Ammon ; * for in their going up out of Egypt Israel went in the wilderness as far as the sea of Siph , and came to Cades . * And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom , saying , I will pass , if it please thee , by thy land : and the king of Edom (note :)Gr . heard not (:note ) complied not : and Israel also sent to the king of Moab , and he did not consent ; and Israel sojourned in Cades . * And they journeyed in the wilderness , and compassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab : and they came by the east of the land of Moab , an encamped in the country beyond Arnon , and came not within the borders of Moab , for Arnon is the border of Moab . * And Israel sent messengers to Seon king of the Amorite , king of Esbon , and Israel said to him , Let us pass , we pray thee , by thy land to our place . * And Seon did not trust Israel to pass by his coast ; and Seon gathered all his people , and they encamped at Jasa ; and he set the battle in array against Israel . * And the Lord God of Israel delivered Seon and all his people into the hand of Israel , and they smote him ; and Israel inherited all the land of the Amorite who dwelt in that land , * from Arnon and to Jaboc , and from the wilderness to Jordan . * And now the Lord God of Israel has removed the Amorite from before his people Israel , and shalt thou inherit (note :)Gr . him (:note ) his land ? * Wilt thou not inherit those possessions which Chamos thy god shall cause thee to inherit ; and shall not we inherit the land of all those whom the Lord our God has removed from before (note :)So the text ; but hmwn , us , is undoubtedly the true reading (:note ) you ? * And now art thou any better than Balac son of Sepphor , king of Moab ? did he indeed fight with Israel , or indeed make war with him , * when Israel dwelt in Esebon and in its coasts , and in the land of Aroer and in its coasts , and in all the cities by Jordan , three hundred years ? and wherefore didst thou not (note :)Or , redeem (:note ) recover them in that time ? * And now (note :)The verb eimi is merely redundant after the pronoun egw , in these instances (:note ) I have not sinned against thee , but thou wrongest me in preparing war against me : may the Lord the Judge judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon . * But the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not to the words of Jephthae , which he sent to him . * And the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthae , and he passed over Galaad , and Manasse , and passed by the watch-tower of Galaad to the other side of the children of Ammon . * And Jephthae vowed a vow to the Lord , and said , If thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand , * then it shall come to pass that whosoever shall first come out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon , he shall be the Lord ’s : I will offer him up for a whole-burnt-offering . * And Jephthae advanced to meet the sons of Ammon to fight against them ; and the Lord delivered them into his hand . * And he smote them from Aroer till one comes to Arnon , in number twenty cities , and as far as Ebelcharmim , with a very great destruction : and the children of Ammon were straitened before the children of Israel . * And Jephthae came to Massepha to his house ; and behold , his daughter came forth to meet him with timbrels and dances ; and she was his only child , he had not another son or daughter . * And it came to pass when he saw her , that he rent his garments , and said , Ah , ah , my daughter , thou hast indeed troubled me , and thou wast the cause of my trouble ; and I have opened my mouth against thee to the Lord , and I shall not be able to return from it . * And she said to him , Father , hast thou opened thy mouth to the Lord ? Do to me accordingly as the word went out of thy mouth , in that the Lord has wrought vengeance for thee on thine enemies of the children of Ammon . * And she said to her father , Let my father now do this thing : let me alone for two months , and I will go up and down on the mountains , and I will bewail my virginity , I and my companions . * And he said , Go : and he sent her away for two months ; and she went , and her companions , and she bewailed her virginity on the mountains . * And it came to pass at the end of the two months that she returned to her father ; and he performed upon her his vow which he vowed ; and she knew no man : * and it was an ordinance in Israel , That the daughters of Israel went from (note :)Period of days , i . e ., year (:note ) year to year to bewail the daughter of Jephthae the Galaadite for four days in a year .

---