23. So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldst thou possess it?
24. Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
25. And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
26. While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that are along by the borders of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
27. Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
28. But, the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29. Then the 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 to the children of Ammon.
30. And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,
31. Then it shall be, that whatever cometh out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it for a burnt-offering.
32. So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
33. And he smote them from Aroer even till thou comest to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with 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 he 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 to the LORD, and I cannot go back.
36. And she said to him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thy enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
37. And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: Let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
38. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.