1. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
2. Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”
3. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
4. After a while, the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5. When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob.
6. They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.”
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?”
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. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
9. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them before me, will I be your head?”
10. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be witness between us. Surely we will do what you say.”
11. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”
13. The king of the children of Ammon answered 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 that territory again peaceably.”
14. Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;
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,
16. but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf, 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 didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel stayed in Kadesh.
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.
19. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to my place.’