1And Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a woman (ishah), a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.
2And the wife (ishah) of Gilead bore him sons; and the sons of the woman (ishah) grew up, and they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, "You shall not inherit in the house of our father, for you are the son of another woman (ishah)."
3And Jephthah fled from before his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob; and there gathered to Jephthah empty men (ish), and they went out with him.
4And it came to pass after days, that the children of Ammon fought with Israel.
5And it came to pass, when the children of Ammon fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to take Jephthah from the land of Tob.
6And they said to Jephthah, "Come and be for us a chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon."
7And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did not you hate me, and drive me out from the house of my father? And why have you come to me now when you are in distress?"
8And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore now we have returned to you, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon, and you shall be for us head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
9And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight with the children of Ammon, and YHWH gives them before me, I—I will be your head."
10And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "YHWH shall be hearing between us, if we do not act according to your word."
11And Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them for head and for chief; and Jephthah spoke all his words before YHWH in Mizpah.
12And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, "What is between me and you, that you have come to me to fight in my land?"
13And the king of the children of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took my land when he came up from Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan; and now restore them in peace."
14And Jephthah added yet again, and sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon.
15And he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon.
16For when they came up from Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness as far as the Sea of Reeds, and came to Kadesh.
17And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Let me pass, please, through your land'; but the king of Edom did not listen. And also to the king of Moab he sent; but he was not willing; and Israel dwelt in Kadesh.
18And he walked through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came from the rising of the sun to the land of Moab, and they encamped beyond the Arnon; but they did not come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
19And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, 'Let us pass, please, through your land to my place.'
20But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border; and Sihon gathered all his people, and they encamped in Jahaz, and he fought with Israel.
21And YHWH, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them; and Israel possessed all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that land.
22And they possessed all the border of the Amorite, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
23And now YHWH, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorite from before His people Israel, and you—would you possess it?
24Is it not so that whatever Chemosh your god dispossesses for you, that you possess? So all that YHWH our God has dispossessed from before us, that we possess.
25And now, are you indeed better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
26While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its daughters, and in Aroer and its daughters, and in all the cities that are by the sides of the Arnon, three hundred years—and why did you not recover them in that time?
27And I—I have not sinned against you, but you are doing evil with me to fight against me; let YHWH, the Judge, judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
28But the king of the children of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent to him.
29And the spirit (ruach) of YHWH was upon 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.
30And Jephthah vowed a vow to YHWH, and said, "If You will indeed give the children of Ammon into my hand,
31then it shall be that the one going out, who goes out from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall be for YHWH, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."
32And Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight with them; and YHWH gave them into his hand.
33And he smote them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and to Abel-cheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34And Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold, his daughter was going out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was an only child—besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
35And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his garments, and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you—you have become among my troublers; for I—I have opened my mouth to YHWH, and I cannot go back."
36And she said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to YHWH; do to me according to that which came out from your mouth, after that YHWH has done for you vengeances from your enemies, from the children of Ammon."
37And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go and go down upon the mountains, and weep over my virginity, I and my companions."
38And he said, "Go." And he sent her away two months; and she went, she and her companions, and wept over her virginity upon the mountains.
39And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, and he did to her his vow which he had vowed; and she had not known man (ish). And it became a statute (choq) in Israel,
40from days to days the daughters of Israel went to lament for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.