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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.

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.

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.

⁴ It happened after a while, that the children of `Ammon made war against Yisra'el.

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;

⁶ and they said to Yiftach, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of `Ammon.

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?

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.

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?

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 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.

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?

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.

¹⁴ Yiftach sent messengers again to the king of the children of `Ammon;

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,

¹⁶ but when they came up from Mitzrayim, and Yisra'el went through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf, and came to Kadesh;

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

²² They possessed all the border of the Amori, from the Arnon even to the Yabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Yarden.

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

²⁸ However the king of the children of `Ammon didn't listen to the words of Yiftach which he sent him.

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.

³⁰ Yiftach vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of `Ammon into my hand,

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.

³² So Yiftach passed over to the children of `Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hand.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

⁴⁰ that the daughters of Yisra'el went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Yiftach the Gil`adite four days in a year.