Judges, starting at chapter 10
{10:1} After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of
Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in
the hill country of Ephraim. {10:2} He judged Israel twenty-three
years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. {10:3} After him arose
Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. {10:4} He
had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty
cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the
land of Gilead. {10:5} Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. {10:6} The
children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of
Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of
the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they
forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him. {10:7} The anger of Yahweh was
kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the
Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. {10:8} They
troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen
years [oppressed they] all the children of Israel that were beyond the
Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. {10:9} The
children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah,
and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel
was sore distressed. {10:10} The children of Israel cried to Yahweh,
saying, "We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our
God, and have served the Baals."
{10:11} Yahweh said to the children of Israel, "Didn't I save you
from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon,
and from the Philistines? {10:12} The Sidonians also, and the
Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me,
and I saved you out of their hand. {10:13} Yet you have forsaken me,
and served other gods: therefore I will save you no more. {10:14} Go
and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the
time of your distress!"
{10:15} The children of Israel said to Yahweh, "We have sinned: do
you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, we pray you,
this day."
{10:16} They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served
Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
{10:17} Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and
encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves
together, and encamped in Mizpah. {10:18} The people, the princes of
Gilead, said one to another, "What man is he who will begin to fight
against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead."
{11:1} Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he
was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
{11:2} Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up,
they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, "You shall not inherit in
our father's house; for you are the son of another woman." {11:3} Then
Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and
there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with
him. {11:4} It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made
war against Israel. {11:5} It was so, that when the children of Ammon
made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out
of the land of Tob; {11:6} and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our
chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon."
{11:7} Jephthah 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?"
{11:8} The 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; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants
of Gilead."
{11:9} Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home
again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them
before me, shall I be your head?"
{11:10} The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Yahweh shall be
witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do."
{11:11} Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people
made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words
before Yahweh in Mizpah.
{11:12} Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of
Ammon, saying, "What have you to do with me, that you have come to me
to fight against my land?"
{11:13} The king of the children of Ammon answered to 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 those [lands] again peaceably."
{11:14} Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children
of Ammon; {11:15} and he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel
didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of
Ammon, {11:16} but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went
through the wilderness to the [1>]Red Sea[<1], and came to Kadesh;
{11:17} then 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 would
not: and Israel abode in Kadesh. {11:18} Then 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. {11:19} Israel sent
messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and
Israel said to him, 'Let us pass, please, through your land to my
place.' {11:20} But 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. {11:21} Yahweh, 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. {11:22} They possessed all the border of
the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the
wilderness even to the Jordan. {11:23} So now Yahweh, the God of
Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel,
and should you possess them? {11:24} Won't you possess that which
Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has
dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. {11:25} Now 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? {11:26}
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its
towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon,
three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time?
{11:27} I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong
to war against me. Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the
children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
{11:28} However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to
the words of Jephthah which he sent him. {11:29} Then the Spirit of
Yahweh came on 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.
{11:30} Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, "If you will
indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, {11:31} then it
shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet
me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be
Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
{11:32} So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight
against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. {11:33} He
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.
{11:34} Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his
daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and
she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
{11:35} It happened, when he saw her, that 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 Yahweh, and
I can't go back."
{11:36} She said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to
Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your
mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies,
even on the children of Ammon." {11:37} She said to her father, "Let
this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart
and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my
companions."
{11:38} He said, "Go." He sent her away for two months: and she
departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the
mountains. {11:39} It happened at the end of two months, that she
returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he
had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, {11:40}
that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of
Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
{12:1} The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed
northward; and they said to Jephthah, "Why did you pass over to fight
against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? We
will burn your house around you with fire!"
{12:2} Jephthah said to them, "I and my people were at great strife
with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me
out of their hand. {12:3} When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my
life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and
Yahweh delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me
this day, to fight against me?"
{12:4} Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and
fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because
they said, "You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst
of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh." {12:5} The Gileadites
took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that
when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men
of Gilead said to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No;"
{12:6} then said they to him, "Now say 'Shibboleth;'" and he said
"Sibboleth;" for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they
laid hold of him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that
time, forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell. {12:7} Jephthah judged
Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in
[one of] the cities of Gilead. {12:8} After him Ibzan of Bethlehem
judged Israel. {12:9} He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent
abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons.
He judged Israel seven years. {12:10} Ibzan died, and was buried at
Bethlehem. {12:11} After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he
judged Israel ten years. {12:12} Elon the Zebulunite died, and was
buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. {12:13} After him Abdon the
son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. {12:14} He had forty sons
and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged
Israel eight years. {12:15} Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite
died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill
country of the Amalekites.
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Footnotes:
[1] {11:16} or, Sea of Reeds
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