1  There was a man from the Gilead region named Jephthah. He was a great warrior. His father was also named Gilead. But his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife gave birth to several sons. When they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home, saying to him, “You are the son of a prostitute, not the son of our mother. So when our father dies, you will not receive any of his property.” 3 So Jephthah ran away from his brothers, and he went to the Tob region. While he was there, some worthless men started to spend a lot of time with him.

4 Some time later, the Ammon people-group started to fight against the Israelis. 5 When that happened [DOU], the leaders of the Gilead region went to Jephthah to bring him back from the Tob region to their area. 6 They said to him, “Come with us and lead our army, and help us to fight against the men from the Ammon people-group!”

7 But Jephthah replied, “You hated me [RHQ] previously! You forced me to leave my father’s house! So why are you coming to me now, asking me to help you when you are experiencing trouble?”

8 The leaders from Gilead replied, “Yes, we are having trouble, and that is the reason that we have come to you now. If you come with us and help us to fight against the Ammon people-group, after we defeat them, we will appoint you to be the leader of all us people in the Gilead region.”

9 Jephthah replied, “If I go back to Gilead with you to fight against the Ammon people-group, and if Yahweh helps us to defeat them, will you truly appoint me to be your leader?” 10 They replied, “Yahweh is listening to everything that we say. So he will punish us if we do not do everything that you tell us to do.” 11 So Jephthah went with them back to the Gilead region, and the people appointed him to be their leader and the commander of their army. And Jephthah solemnly promised to Yahweh there at Mizpah to serve him well.

12 Jephthah sent some messengers to the king of the Ammon people-group. They asked the king, “What have we done to make you angry, with the result that your army is coming to fight against the people in our land?”

13 The king replied, “We have come to fight against you Israelis because you took our land when you came here from Egypt. You took all our land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north. So if you now give it back to us, there ◄will be peace between us/we will not fight against you►.”

14  The messengers returned to Jephthah and told him what the king had said. So Jephthah sent the messengers to the king again. 15 They said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘It is not true that we Israelis took the land from the Moab people-group and the Ammon people-group. 16 When the Israeli people came out of Egypt, they walked through the desert to the Red Sea, and then walked across it and traveled to Kadesh town at the border of the Edom region. 17 They sent messengers to the king of the Edom people-group, to say to him, “Please allow us Israelis to walk across your land.” But the king of the Edom people-group refused. Later we sent the same message to the king of the Moab people-group, but he also refused to allow the Israelis to go through his land. So the Israelis stayed at Kadesh for a long time. 18 Then the Israelis went into the desert and walked outside the borders of the Edom and Moab regions. They walked east of the Moab region, east of the Arnon River, which is the eastern border of the Moab region. They did not cross that river to enter the Moab region.

19 ‘Then the Israelis sent a message to Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lived in Heshbon city. They asked him, “Will you please allow us Israeli people to cross through your land to arrive at the land to which we are going.” 20 But Sihon did not trust the Israelis; he thought that they would steal some of the things in his land. So he gathered all his troops and they set up their tents at Jahaz village and then they attacked the Israelis. 21 But Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, enabled the Israeli army to defeat [IDM] Sihon and his army. Then they ◄took possession of/started to live in► all the land where the Amor people-group had lived. 22 The Israelis took all the land that belonged to the Amor people-group, from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the Jordan River in the west.

23 ‘It was Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, who forced the Amor people-group to leave as the Israelis advanced. So do you now think that you can force the Israelis to leave [RHQ]? 24 You take the land that your god Chemosh has given to you. And we will live in the land that Yahweh our God has given to us! 25 ◄You are no/Are you► better than Zippor’s son Balak, who was the king of the Moab people-group? He never [RHQ] quarreled with the Israeli people, and he never started to fight against us [RHQ]! 26 For 300 years the Israeli people have lived in Heshbon and Aroer cities in your region, and in the surrounding towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon River. Why have you people of the Ammon people-group not taken back those cities during all those years [RHQ]? 27 We have not sinned against you, but you are sinning against me by attacking me and my army. I trust that Yahweh, the great judge, will decide whether we Israelis are right, or whether you people of the Ammon people-group are right.’ ”

29 Then the Spirit of Yahweh took control of Jephthah. Jephthah went through the Gilead region and through the area where the tribe of Manasseh lived, to enlist/gather men for his army. He finally gathered them together in Mizpah city in the Gilead region to fight against the Ammon people-group. 30 There Jephthah made a solemn promise to Yahweh. He said, “If you will enable my army to defeat [IDM] the Ammon people-group, 31 when I return from the battle, I will sacrifice to you the first person who comes out of my house to greet me. It will be a sacrifice that will be completely burned on the altar.”

32 Then Jephthah and his men went from Mizpah to attack the Ammon people-group, and Yahweh enabled his army to defeat them. 33 Jephthah and his men killed them, from Aroer city all the way to the area around the city of Minnith. They destroyed 20 cities, as far as the city of Abel Keramim. So the Israelis completely defeated the Ammon people-group.

34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, his daughter was the first one to come out of the house to meet him. She was joyfully playing a tambourine and dancing. She was his only child; he had no sons and no other daughters. 35 When Jephthah saw his daughter, he tore his clothes to show that he was very sad about what he was going to do. He said to her, “My daughter, you have caused me to become very sad [DOU] because I made a solemn promise to Yahweh to sacrifice the first one who came out of my house, and I must do what I promised.”

36 His daughter said, “My father, you made a solemn promise to Yahweh. So you must do to me what you promised, because you said that you would do that if Yahweh helped you to defeat our enemies, the Ammon people-group.” 37 Then she also said, “But allow me to do one thing. ◄First/before you do what you promised►, allow me to go up into the hilly area and wander around for two months. Since I will never be married and have children, allow me and my friends to go and cry together.”

38 Jephthah replied, “All right, you may go.” So she left for two months. She and her friends stayed in the hills and they cried for her because she would never be married. 39 After two months, she returned to her father Jephthah, and he did to her what he had vowed. So his daughter never was married.

Because of that, the Israelis now have a custom. 40 Every year the young Israeli women go into the hills for four days to remember and cry about what happened to the daughter of Jephthah.