King James Version › Judges › 11

Judges

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1 Now Jeph­thah the Gilea­dite was a mighty man of val­our, and he was the son of an har­lot: and Gilead be­gat Jeph­thah. 2 And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jeph­thah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not in­her­it in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange wom­an. 3 Then Jeph­thah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gath­ered vain men to Jeph­thah, and went out with him. 4 And it came to pass in pro­cess of time, that the chil­dren of Am­mon made war against Is­rael. 5 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: 6 And they said unto Jeph­thah, Come, and be our cap­tain, that we may fight with the chil­dren of Am­mon. 7 And Jeph­thah said unto the el­ders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and ex­pel me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in dis­tress? 8 And the el­ders of Gilead said unto Jeph­thah, There­fore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the chil­dren of Am­mon, and be our head over all the in­hab­i­tants of Gilead. 9 And Jeph­thah said unto the el­ders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the chil­dren of Am­mon, and the LORD de­liv­er them be­fore me, shall I be your head? 10 And the el­ders of Gilead said unto Jeph­thah, The LORD be wit­ness be­tween us, if we do not so ac­cord­ing to thy words. 11 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. 12 And Jeph­thah sent mes­sen­gers unto the king of the chil­dren of Am­mon, say­ing, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land? 13 And the king of the chil­dren of Am­mon an­swered unto the mes­sen­gers of Jeph­thah, Be­cause Is­rael took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jab­bok, and unto Jor­dan: now there­fore re­store those lands again peace­ably. 14 And Jeph­thah sent mes­sen­gers again unto the king of the chil­dren of Am­mon: 15 And said unto him, Thus saith Jeph­thah, Is­rael took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the chil­dren of Am­mon: 16 But when Is­rael came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilder­ness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; 17 Then Is­rael sent mes­sen­gers unto the king of Edom, say­ing, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hear­ken thereto. And in like man­ner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Is­rael abode in Kadesh. 18 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. 19 And Is­rael sent mes­sen­gers unto Si­hon king of the Amor­ites, the king of Hes­h­bon; and Is­rael said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. 20 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. 21 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. 22 And they pos­sessed all the coasts of the Amor­ites, from Arnon even unto Jab­bok, and from the wilder­ness even unto Jor­dan. 23 So now the LORD God of Is­rael hath dis­pos­sessed the Amor­ites from be­fore his peo­ple Is­rael, and shouldest thou pos­sess it? 24 Wilt not thou pos­sess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to pos­sess? So whom­so­ev­er the LORD our God shall drive out from be­fore us, them will we pos­sess. 25 And now art thou 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, 26 While Is­rael dwelt 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 ye not re­cov­er them with­in that time? 27 Where­fore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day be­tween the chil­dren of Is­rael and the chil­dren of Am­mon. 28 How­beit the king of the chil­dren of Am­mon hear­kened not unto the words of Jeph­thah which he sent him. 29 Then the Spir­it of the LORD came upon Jeph­thah, and he passed over Gilead, and Man­asseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the chil­dren of Am­mon. 30 And Jeph­thah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt with­out fail de­liv­er the chil­dren of Am­mon into mine hands, 31 Then it shall be, that what­so­ev­er cometh 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'S, and I will of­fer it up for a burnt of­fer­ing. 32 So Jeph­thah passed over unto the chil­dren of Am­mon to fight against them; and the LORD de­liv­ered them into his hands. 33 And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Min­nith, even twen­ty cities, and unto the plain of the vine­yards, with a very great slaugh­ter. Thus the chil­dren of Am­mon were sub­dued be­fore the chil­dren of Is­rael. 34 And Jeph­thah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, be­hold, his daugh­ter came out to meet him with tim­brels and with dances: and she was his only child; be­side her he had nei­ther son nor daugh­ter. 35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daugh­ter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trou­ble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I can­not go back. 36 And she said unto him, My fa­ther, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me ac­cord­ing to that which hath pro­ceed­ed out of thy mouth; foras­much as the LORD hath tak­en vengeance for thee of thine en­e­mies, even of the chil­dren of Am­mon. 37 And she said unto her fa­ther, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the moun­tains, and be­wail my vir­gin­i­ty, I and my fel­lows. 38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her com­pan­ions, and be­wailed her vir­gin­i­ty upon the moun­tains. 39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she re­turned unto 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, 40 That the daugh­ters of Is­rael went year­ly to lament the daugh­ter of Jeph­thah the Gilea­dite four days in a year.