Juízes 11

¹ Then Gilead begate Iphtah, and Iphtah the Gileadite was a valiant man, but the sonne of an harlot.

² And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou [art] the son of aThat is, of a harlot as in (Jdg_11:1).strange woman.

³ Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land ofWhere the governor of the country was called Tob.Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, andJoined with him, as some think, against his brethren.went out with him.

⁴ And in processe of time the children of Ammon made warre with Israel.

⁵ And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, theOr, ambassadors, sent for that purpose.elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

⁶ And they said unto Jephthah,Men are often forced to ask for help from them, whom before they refused.Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

⁷ And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, andOften those things which men reject, God chooses to do great enterprises by.expel me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?

⁸ Then the Elders of Gilead saide vnto Iphtah, Therefore we turne againe to thee now, that thou mayest goe with vs, and fight against the children of Ammon, and bee our head ouer all the inhabitants of Gilead.

⁹ And Iphtah said vnto the Elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home againe to fight against the children of Ammon, if the Lord giue them before me, shall I be your head?

¹⁰ And the Elders of Gilead saide to Iphtah, The Lorde be witnesse betweene vs, if we doe not according to thy wordes.

¹¹ Then Iphtah went with the Elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captaine ouer them: and Iphtah rehearsed all his wordes before the Lorde in Mizpeh.

¹² Then Iphtah sent messengers vnto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to doe with me, that thou art come against me, to fight in my lande?

¹³ And the King of the children of Ammon answered vnto the messengers of Iphtah, Because Israel tooke my lande, when they came vp from Egypt, fro Arnon vnto Iabbok, & vnto Iorden: now therefore restore those lands quietly.

¹⁴ Yet Iphtah sent messengers againe vnto the King of the children of Ammon,

¹⁵ And said vnto him, Thus saith Iphtah, Israel tooke not the lande of Moab, nor the lande of the children of Ammon.

¹⁶ But when Israel came vp from Egypt, and walked through the wildernesse vnto the redde Sea, then they came to Kadesh.

¹⁷ And Israel sent messengers vnto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, goe thorowe thy lande: but the King of Edom woulde not consent: and also they sent vnto the King of Moab, but he would not: therefore Israel abode in Kadesh.

¹⁸ Then they went through the wildernesse, and compassed the lande of Edom, and the lande of Moab, and came by the Eastside of the lande of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, and came not within the coast of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹ Also Israel sent messengers vnto Sihon, King of the Amorites, the King of Heshbon, and Israel said vnto him, Let vs passe, we pray thee, by thy lande vnto our place.

²⁰ But SihonHe trusted them not to go through his country.trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²¹ And the Lorde God of Israel gaue Sihon and all his folke into the handes of Israel, & they smote them: so Israel possessed all the lande of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that countrey:

²² And they possessed all the coast of the Amorites, from Arnon vnto Iabbok, and from the wildernesse euen vnto Iorden.

²³ Nowe therefore the Lorde God of Israel hath cast out the Amorites before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possesse it?

²⁴ Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever theFor we should believe and obey God more than you your idols.LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

²⁵ And art thou nowe farre better then Balak the sonne of Zippor King of Moab? did he not striue with Israel and fight against them,

²⁶ While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that [be] along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recoverMeaning their towns.[them] within that time?

²⁷ Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the JudgeTo punish the offender.be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸ Howbeit the King of the children of Ammon hearkened not vnto the wordes of Iphtah, which he had sent him.

²⁹ Then theThat is, the spirit of strength and zeal.Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over [unto] the children of Ammon.

³⁰ And JephthahAs the apostle commends Jephthah for his worthy enterprise in delivering the people, (Heb_11:32) so by his rash vow and wicked performance of the same, his victory was defaced: and here we see that the sins of the godly do not utterly extinguish their faith.vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

³¹ Then that thing that commeth out of the doores of mine house to meete me, when I come home in peace from the children of Ammon, shall be the Lordes, and I will offer it for a burnt offering.

³² And so Iphtah went vnto the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord deliuered them into his handes.

³³ And he smote them from Aroer euen till thou come to Minnith, twentie cities, and so foorth to Abel of the vineyardes, with an exceeding great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were humbled before the children of Israel.

³⁴ And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him withAccording to the manner after the victory.timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵ And it came to pass, when he saw her, that heBeing overcome with blind zeal, and not considering whether the vow was lawful or not.rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.

³⁶ And she said vnto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth vnto the Lorde, doe with me as thou hast promised, seeing that the Lorde hath auenged thee of thine enemies the children of Ammon.

³⁷ And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, andFor it was counted as a shame in Israel, to die without children, and therefore they rejoiced to be married.bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.

³⁸ And he sayde, Goe: and he sent her away two moneths: so she went with her companions, and lamented her virginitie vpon the moutaines.

³⁹ And after the ende of two moneths, she turned againe vnto her father, who did with her according to his vowe which he had vowed, and she had knowen no man; it was a custome in Israel:

⁴⁰ The daughters of Israel went yere by yere to lament the daughter of Iphtah the Gileadite, foure dayes in a yeere.