1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. He was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 2Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 3Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
4After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 5When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob. 6They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.”
7Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
8The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the children of Ammon. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them before me, will I be your head?”
10The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
12Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”
13The king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore that territory again peaceably.”
14Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 15and he said to him, “Jephthah says: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon; 16but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh, 17then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab, but he refused; so Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’ 20But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21The Lord, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 22They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 23So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel, and should you possess them? 24Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever the Lord our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 25Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 26Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the side of the Arnon for three hundred years! Why didn’t you recover them within that time? 27Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May the Lord the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”
28However, the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 29Then the Lord’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
32So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hand. 33He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can’t go back.”
36She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because the Lord has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.” 37Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”
38He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel 40that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
1Fuit illo tempore Jephte Galaadites vir fortissimus atque pugnator, filius mulieris meretricis, qui natus est de Galaad. 2Habuit autem Galaad uxorem, de qua suscepit filios: qui postquam creverant, ejecerunt Jephte, dicentes: Hæres in domo patris nostri esse non poteris, quia de altera matre natus es. 3Quos ille fugiens atque devitans, habitavit in terra Tob: congregatique sunt ad eum viri inopes, et latrocinantes, et quasi principem sequebantur. 4In illis diebus pugnabant filii Ammon contra Israël. 5Quibus acriter instantibus perrexerunt majores natu de Galaad, ut tollerent in auxilium sui Jephte de terra Tob: 6dixeruntque ad eum: Veni et esto princeps noster, et pugna contra filios Ammon. 7Quibus ille respondit: Nonne vos estis, qui odistis me, et ejecistis de domo patris mei? et nunc venistis ad me necessitate compulsi. 8Dixeruntque principes Galaad ad Jephte: Ob hanc igitur causam nunc ad te venimus, ut proficiscaris nobiscum, et pugnes contra filios Ammon, sisque dux omnium qui habitant in Galaad. 9Jephte quoque dixit eis: Si vere venistis ad me, ut pugnem pro vobis contra filios Ammon, tradideritque eos Dominus in manus meas, ego ero vester princeps? 10Qui responderunt ei: Dominus, qui hæc audit, ipse mediator ac testis est quod nostra promissa faciemus. 11Abiit itaque Jephte cum principibus Galaad, fecitque eum omnis populus principem sui. Locutusque est Jephte omnes sermones suos coram Domino in Maspha. 12Et misit nuntios ad regem filiorum Ammon, qui ex persona sua dicerent: Quid mihi et tibi est, quia venisti contra me, ut vastares terram meam? 13Quibus ille respondit: Quia tulit Israël terram meam, quando ascendit de Ægypto, a finibus Arnon usque Jaboc atque Jordanem: nunc ergo cum pace redde mihi eam. 14Per quos rursum mandavit Jephte, et imperavit eis ut dicerent regi Ammon: 15Hæc dicit Jephte: Non tulit Israël terram Moab, nec terram filiorum Ammon: 16sed quando de Ægypto conscenderunt, ambulavit per solitudinem usque ad mare Rubrum, et venit in Cades. 17Misitque nuntios ad regem Edom, dicens: Dimitte me ut transeam per terram tuam. Qui noluit acquiescere precibus ejus. Misit quoque ad regem Moab, qui et ipse transitum præbere contempsit. Mansit itaque in Cades, 18et circuivit ex latere terram Edom et terram Moab: venitque contra orientalem plagam terræ Moab, et castrametatus est trans Arnon: nec voluit intrare terminos Moab. (Arnon quippe confinium est terræ Moab.) 19Misit itaque Israël nuntios ad Sehon regem Amorrhæorum, qui habitabat in Hesebon, et dixerunt ei: Dimitte ut transeam per terram tuam usque ad fluvium. 20Qui et ipse Israël verba despiciens, non dimisit eum transire per terminos suos: sed infinita multitudine congregata, egressus est contra eum in Jasa, et fortiter resistebat. 21Tradiditque eum Dominus in manus Israël cum omni exercitu suo: qui percussit eum, et possedit omnem terram Amorrhæi habitatoris regionis illius, 22et universos fines ejus, de Arnon usque Jaboc, et de solitudine usque ad Jordanem. 23Dominus ergo Deus Israël subvertit Amorrhæum, pugnante contra illum populo suo Israël, et tu nunc vis possidere terram ejus? 24nonne ea quæ possidet Chamos deus tuus, tibi jure debentur? quæ autem Dominus Deus noster victor obtinuit, in nostram cedent possessionem: 25nisi forte melior es Balac filio Sephor rege Moab; aut docere potes, quod jurgatus sit contra Israël, et pugnaverit contra eum, 26quando habitavit in Hesebon et viculis ejus, et in Aroër et villis illius, vel in cunctis civitatibus juxta Jordanem, per trecentos annos. Quare tanto tempore nihil super hac repetitione tentastis? 27Igitur non ego pecco in te, sed tu contra me male agis, indicens mihi bella non justa. Judicet Dominus arbiter hujus diei inter Israël, et inter filios Ammon. 28Noluitque acquiescere rex filiorum Ammon verbis Jephte, quæ per nuntios mandaverat. 29Factus est ergo super Jephte spiritus Domini, et circuiens Galaad et Manasse, Maspha quoque Galaad, et inde transiens ad filios Ammon, 30votum vovit Domino, dicens: Si tradideris filios Ammon in manus meas, 31quicumque primus fuerit egressus de foribus domus meæ, mihique occurrerit revertenti cum pace a filiis Ammon, eum holocaustum offeram Domino. 32Transivitque Jephte ad filios Ammon, ut pugnaret contra eos: quos tradidit Dominus in manus ejus. 33Percussitque ab Aroër usque dum venias in Mennith, viginti civitates, et usque ad Abel, quæ est vineis consita, plaga magna nimis: humiliatique sunt filii Ammon a filiis Israël. 34Revertente autem Jephte in Maspha domum suam, occurrit ei unigenita filia sua cum tympanis et choris: non enim habebat alios liberos. 35Qua visa, scidit vestimenta sua, et ait: Heu me, filia mea! decepisti me, et ipsa decepta es: aperui enim os meum ad Dominum, et aliud facere non potero. 36Cui illa respondit: Pater mi, si aperuisti os tuum ad Dominum, fac mihi quodcumque pollicitus es, concessa tibi ultione atque victoria de hostibus tuis. 37Dixitque ad patrem: Hoc solum mihi præsta quod deprecor: dimitte me ut duobus mensibus circumeam montes, et plangam virginitatem meam cum sodalibus meis. 38Cui ille respondit: Vade. Et dimisit eam duobus mensibus. Cumque abiisset cum sociis ac sodalibus suis, flebat virginitatem suam in montibus. 39Expletisque duobus mensibus, reversa est ad patrem suum, et fecit ei sicut voverat, quæ ignorabat virum. Exinde mos increbruit in Israël, et consuetudo servata est, 40ut post anni circulum conveniant in unum filiæ Israël, et plangant filiam Jephte Galaaditæ diebus quatuor.