Shofetim, starting at chapter 10
{10:1} After Avimelekh there arose to save Yisra'el Tola the son of
Pu`ah, the son of Dodo, a man of Yissakhar; and he lived in Shamir in
the hill-country of Efrayim. {10:2} He judged Yisra'el twenty-three
years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. {10:3} After him arose
Ya'ir, the Gil`adite; and he judged Yisra'el twenty-two years. {10:4}
He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had
thirty cities, which are called Havvot-Ya'ir to this day, which are in
the land of Gil`ad. {10:5} Ya'ir died, and was buried in Kamon. {10:6}
The children of Yisra'el again did that which was evil in the sight of
the LORD, and served the Ba`alim, and the `Ashtarot, and the gods of
Aram, and the gods of Tzidon, and the gods of Mo'av, and the gods of
the children of `Ammon, and the gods of the Pelishtim; and they
forsook the LORD, and didn't serve him. {10:7} The anger of the LORD
was kindled against Yisra'el, and he sold them into the hand of the
Pelishtim, and into the hand of the children of `Ammon. {10:8} They
vexed and oppressed the children of Yisra'el that year: eighteen years
[oppressed they] all the children of Yisra'el that were beyond the
Yarden in the land of the Amori, which is in Gil`ad. {10:9} The
children of `Ammon passed over the Yarden to fight also against
Yehudah, and against Binyamin, and against the house of Efrayim; so
that Yisra'el was sore distressed. {10:10} The children of Yisra'el
cried to the LORD, saying, We have sinned against you, even because we
have forsaken our God, and have served the Ba`alim. {10:11} The LORD
said to the children of Yisra'el, Didn't I save you from the Mitzrim,
and from the Amori, from the children of `Ammon, and from the
Pelishtim? {10:12} The Tzidonim also, and the `Amaleki, and the Ma`on,
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 Yisra'el said to the LORD, 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 the LORD; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Yisra'el.
{10:17} Then the children of `Ammon were gathered together, and
encamped in Gil`ad. The children of Yisra'el assembled themselves
together, and encamped in Mitzpah. {10:18} The people, the princes of
Gil`ad, 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 Gil`ad.
{11:1} Now Yiftach the Gil`adite was a mighty man of valor, and he
was the son of a prostitute: and Gil`ad became the father of Yiftach.
{11:2} Gil`ad's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up,
they drove out Yiftach, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our
father's house; for you are the son of another woman. {11:3} Then
Yiftach fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tov: and
there were gathered vain fellows to Yiftach, and they went out with
him. {11:4} It happened after a while, that the children of `Ammon
made war against Yisra'el. {11:5} It was so, that when the children of
`Ammon made war against Yisra'el, the Zakenim of Gil`ad went to get
Yiftach out of the land of Tov; {11:6} and they said to Yiftach, Come
and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of `Ammon.
{11:7} Yiftach said to the Zakenim of Gil`ad, Didn't you hate me, and
drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when
you are in distress? {11:8} The Zakenim of Gil`ad said to Yiftach,
Therefore are we 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 Gil`ad. {11:9} Yiftach said to the Zakenim of
Gil`ad, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of
`Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
{11:10} The Zakenim of Gil`ad said to Yiftach, the LORD shall be
witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.
{11:11} Then Yiftach went with the Zakenim of Gil`ad, and the people
made him head and chief over them: and Yiftach spoke all his words
before the LORD in Mitzpah. {11:12} Yiftach sent messengers to the
king of the children of `Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me,
that you are come to me to fight against my land? {11:13} The king of
the children of `Ammon answered to the messengers of Yiftach, Because
Yisra'el took away my land, when he came up out of Mitzrayim, from the
Arnon even to the Yabbok, and to the Yarden: now therefore restore
those [lands] again peaceably. {11:14} Yiftach sent messengers again
to the king of the children of `Ammon; {11:15} and he said to him,
Thus says Yiftach: Yisra'el didn't take away the land of Mo'av, nor
the land of the children of `Ammon, {11:16} but when they came up from
Mitzrayim, and Yisra'el went through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf,
and came to Kadesh; {11:17} then Yisra'el 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 Mo'av; but
he would not: and Yisra'el abode in Kadesh. {11:18} Then they went
through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land
of Mo'av, and came by the east side of the land of Mo'av, and they
encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within
the border of Mo'av, for the Arnon was the border of Mo'av. {11:19}
Yisra'el sent messengers to Sichon king of the Amori, the king of
Heshbon; and Yisra'el said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through
your land to my place. {11:20} But Sichon didn't trust Yisra'el to
pass through his border; but Sichon gathered all his people together,
and encamped in Yahatz, and fought against Yisra'el. {11:21} The LORD,
the God of Yisra'el, delivered Sichon and all his people into the hand
of Yisra'el, and they struck them: so Yisra'el possessed all the land
of the Amori, the inhabitants of that country. {11:22} They possessed
all the border of the Amori, from the Arnon even to the Yabbok, and
from the wilderness even to the Yarden. {11:23} So now the LORD, the
God of Yisra'el, has dispossessed the Amori from before his people
Yisra'el, and should you possess them? {11:24} Won't you possess that
which Kemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever the LORD our
God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. {11:25} Now
are you anything better than Balak the son of Tzippor, king of Mo'av?
did he ever strive against Yisra'el, or did he ever fight against
them? {11:26} While Yisra'el lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in
`Aro`er 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: the LORD, the Judge, be judge this
day between the children of Yisra'el and the children of `Ammon.
{11:28} However the king of the children of `Ammon didn't listen to
the words of Yiftach which he sent him. {11:29} Then the Spirit of the
LORD came on Yiftach, and he passed over Gil`ad and Menashsheh, and
passed over Mitzpeh of Gil`ad, and from Mitzpeh of Gil`ad he passed
over to the children of `Ammon. {11:30} Yiftach vowed a vow to the
LORD, 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 shalom from the
children of `Ammon, it shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for
a burnt offering. {11:32} So Yiftach passed over to the children of
`Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his
hand. {11:33} He struck them from `Aro`er until you come to Minnit,
even twenty cities, and to Avel-Keramim, with a very great slaughter.
So the children of `Ammon were subdued before the children of
Yisra'el. {11:34} Yiftach came to Mitzpah to his house; and, behold,
his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels 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 the LORD, and I
can't go back. {11:36} She 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. {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
Yisra'el, {11:40} that the daughters of Yisra'el went yearly to
celebrate the daughter of Yiftach the Gil`adite four days in a year.
{12:1} The men of Efrayim were gathered together, and crossed
[1>]Tzafon[<1]; and they said to Yiftach, 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 on you with fire. {12:2} Yiftach 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 the LORD delivered
them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight
against me? {12:4} Then Yiftach gathered together all the men of
Gil`ad, and fought with Efrayim; and the men of Gil`ad struck Efrayim,
because they said, You are fugitives of Efrayim, you Gil`adi, in the
midst of Efrayim, [and] in the midst of Menashsheh. {12:5} The Gil`adi
took the fords of the Yarden against the Efrayim. It was so, that when
[any of] the fugitives of Efrayim said, Let me go over, the men of
Gil`ad said to him, Are you an Efratite? If he said, No; {12:6} then
said they to him, Say now Shibbolet; and he said Sibboleth; for he
couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and
killed him at the fords of the Yarden. There fell at that time of
Efrayim forty-two thousand. {12:7} Yiftach judged Yisra'el six years.
Then died Yiftach the Gil`adite, and was buried in [one of] the cities
of Gil`ad. {12:8} After him 'Ivtzan of Beit-Lechem judged Yisra'el.
{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
Yisra'el seven years. {12:10} 'Ivtzan died, and was buried at
Beit-Lechem. {12:11} After him Elon the Zevulonite judged Yisra'el;
and he judged Yisra'el ten years. {12:12} Elon the Zevulonite died,
and was buried in Ayalon in the land of Zevulun. {12:13} After him
`Avdon the son of Hillel the Pir`atonite judged Yisra'el. {12:14} He
had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey
colts: and he judged Yisra'el eight years. {12:15} `Avdon the son of
Hillel the Pir`atonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of
Efrayim, in the hill-country of the `Amaleki.
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Footnotes:
[1] {12:1} northward
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