Judges 10-11New King James Version (NKJV)
Tola
10 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel
Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in
Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. 2 He judged
Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.
Jair
3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite;
and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 Now he had
thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; they also had thirty towns, which are
called “Havoth Jair”[a] to this day,
which are in the land of Gilead. 5 And
Jair died and was buried in Camon.
Israel Oppressed Again
6 Then the children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the
Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of
the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook
the Lord and did not serve Him. 7 So the
anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the
hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. 8 From
that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen
years—all the children of Israel who were on the other side of
the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. 9 Moreover
the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah also, against
Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely
distressed.
10 And the children of Israel cried
out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have both
forsaken our God and served the Baals!”
11 So the Lord said to the
children of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from
the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the
Philistines? 12 Also the Sidonians and Amalekites
and Maonites [b] oppressed you; and you
cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. 13 Yet
you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no
more. 14 “Go and cry out to the gods which you have
chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”
15 And the children of Israel said to
the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only
deliver us this day, we pray.” 16 So they put away
the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could
no longer endure the misery of Israel.
17 Then the people of Ammon gathered
together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together
and encamped in Mizpah. 18 And the people, the
leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who
will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead.”
Jephthah
11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man
of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot
Jephthah. 2 Gilead’s wife bore sons; and when his
wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have
no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of
another woman.” 3 Then Jephthah fled from his
brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with
Jephthah and went out raiding with him.
4 It came to pass after a time that
the people of Ammon made war against Israel. 5 And
so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of
Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 Then
they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, that we may fight against
the people of Ammon.”
7 So Jephthah said to the elders of
Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house? Why have you
come to me now when you are in distress?”
8 And the elders of Gilead said to
Jephthah, “That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us
and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants
of Gilead.”
9 So Jephthah said to the elders of
Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and
the Lord delivers them to me, shall I be your head?”
10 And the elders of Gilead said to
Jephthah, “The Lord will be a witness between us, if we do not do
according to your words.” 11 Then Jephthah went
with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over
them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
12 Now Jephthah sent messengers to
the king of the people of Ammon, saying, “What do you have against me, that you
have come to fight against me in my land?”
13 And the king of the people of
Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land
when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and to the
Jordan. Now therefore, restore those lands peaceably.”
14 So Jephthah again sent messengers
to the king of the people of Ammon, 15 and said to
him, “Thus says Jephthah: ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the
land of the people of Ammon; 16 for when Israel
came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea
and came to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers
to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let me pass through your land.” But the
king of Edom would not heed. And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab,
but he would not consent. So Israel remained in Kadesh. 18 And
they went along through the wilderness and bypassed the land of Edom and the
land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab, and encamped on the
other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the border of Moab, for the
Arnon was the border of Moab. 19 Then
Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and
Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land into our
place.” 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass
through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together, encamped in
Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21 And
the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the
hand of Israel, and they defeated them. Thus Israel gained possession of all
the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. 22 They
took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the
Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
23 ‘And now the Lord God of
Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel; should you
then possess it? 24 Will you not possess whatever
Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God
takes possession of before us, we will possess. 25 And
now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of
Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them? 26 While
Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all
the cities along the banks of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you
not recover them within that time? 27 Therefore
I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May
the Lord, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of
Israel and the people of Ammon.’” 28 However, the
king of the people of Ammon did not heed the words which Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah’s Vow and Victory
29 Then the Spirit of
the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and
Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he
advanced toward the people of Ammon. 30 And
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the
people of Ammon into my hands, 31 then it will be
that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in
peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will
offer it up as a burnt offering.”
32 So Jephthah advanced toward the
people of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them
into his hands. 33 And he defeated them from Aroer
as far as Minnith—twenty cities—and to Abel Keramim,[c] with a very great
slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
Jephthah’s Daughter
34 When Jephthah came to his house at
Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and
dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had
neither son nor daughter. 35 And it came to pass,
when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You
have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given
my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it.”
36 So she said to him, “My
father, if you have given your word to the Lord, do to me
according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the Lord has
avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.” 37 Then
she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two
months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my
friends and I.”
38 So he said, “Go.” And he sent her
away for two months; and she went with her friends, and
bewailed her virginity on the mountains. 39 And it
was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried
out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man.
And it became a custom in Israel 40 that the
daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah
the Gileadite.
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