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          DASV: Judges 11    

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior. Gilead
was the father of Jephthah, but his mother was a prostitute.
2 Gilead's wife also bore him sons. When his wife's sons grew
up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, "You should not
inherit anything in our father's house, for you are the son
of another woman."
3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the
land of Tob. There a gang of rebels joined with Jephthah,
and they hung out with him.

4 After some time the Ammonites made war against Israel.
5 When the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders
of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
6 They invited Jephthah, "Come and be our chief, so that
we may fight against the Ammonites."
7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not
hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why are you
coming to me now that you are in trouble?"
8 Then the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Nevertheless
we have turned back to you now, so that you may go with us,
and fight the Ammonites. Then you will be our leader over
all the inhabitants of Gilead."
9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Suppose you bring
me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the LORD
delivers them before me, will I really be your leader?"
10 The elders of Gilead replied, "The LORD is witness
between us, we will do whatever you say."
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the
people made him head and commander over them. Then
Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.

12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites,
saying, "What is the problem between you and me, that
you have come against me to attack my land?"
13 The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of
Jephthah, "Because Israel took away my land, when they
came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok,
and to the Jordan River. Now therefore give it back
peaceably."
14 But Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the
Ammonites, 15 and replied, "This is what Jephthah says, 'Israel did
not steal the land of Moab, or the land of the Ammonites,
16 but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through
the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh.
17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying,
'Please let us, pass through your land,' but the king of
Edom wouldn't listen. They sent the same request to the
king of Moab but he refused as well. So Israel stayed
at Kadesh.
18 Then they went through the wilderness, and went around
the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and traveling to
the east of the land of Moab. They camped on the other
side of the Arnon gorge. They did not enter the territory
of Moab, for the Arnon gorge was the border of Moab.
19 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites,
the king in Heshbon. Israel said to him, 'Please let
us pass through your land to get to our country.'
20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory.
Instead Sihon gathered all his people together and
camped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21 The LORD, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and all his people
over to Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel possessed
all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.
22 They possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the
Arnon gorge in the south to the Jabbok River in the north,
and from the eastern desert over to the Jordan River.
23 So now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven
out the Amorites before his people Israel, what right
do you have to take it?
24 Do you not have the right to possess what Chemosh your
god gives you to possess? So we too will take whatever
the LORD our God has conquered for us.
25 Are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king
of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he
ever dare fight against them?
26 Israel has lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer
and its towns, and in all the towns that are along the
side of the Arnon, for three hundred years. Why did
you not reclaim them within that time?
27 Therefore I have not wronged you, but you have wronged
me by going to war against me. The LORD, the Judge,
be judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites."
28 The king of the Ammonites, however, paid no attention
to the words Jephthah sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, and he
passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through
Mizpah of Gilead, and from there to the Ammonites.

30 Then Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and swore,
"If you will hand the Ammonites over to me,
31 then whatever comes out the door of my house to meet me,
when I return in triumph from the Ammonites, will be the
LORD's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
32 So Jephthah approached the Ammonites to fight against
them and the LORD handed them over to him.
33 He decimated them from Aroer to region of Minnith,
twenty towns, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites
were subdued before the Israelites.
34 When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter
came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances.
She was his only child, he had no other son or daughter
besides her.

35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and bemoaned,
"No, my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought
disaster on me! For I have made a vow to the LORD,
and I cannot take it back."
36 She replied, "My father, you have vowed to the LORD,
so do to me according to what you have promised,
now that the LORD has taken vengeance on your
enemies, the Ammonites."
37 Then she requested from her father, "Please grant
me one request: give me two months that I may go
and travel through the mountains with my friends
and grieve over my virginity."
38 Then he said, "Go." So he sent her away for two
months, and she and her friends left and mourned
her childless virginity on the mountains.
39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father,
and he did with her according to the vow he had made.
She never slept with a man. So it became a custom
in Israel,
40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to
commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite
four days each year.

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