Judges 11:23

King James Version

So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“The Lord God of Israel has now driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, and will you now force us out?

Hebrew Names Version
So now the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, has dispossessed the Amori from before his people Yisra'el, and should you possess them?

Lexham English Bible
So then Yahweh, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before his people Israel, and you want to possess it?

English Standard Version
So then the Lord , the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?

New Century Version
"It was the Lord , the God of Israel, who forced out the Amorites ahead of the people of Israel. So do you think you can make them leave?

New English Translation
Since the Lord God of Israel has driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, do you think you can just take it from them?

Amplified Bible
'And now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed and driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, so [why] should you possess it?

New American Standard Bible
'And now the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from His people Israel; so should you possess it?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Nowe therefore the Lorde God of Israel hath cast out the Amorites before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possesse it?

Legacy Standard Bible
and for others, save, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh.

Contemporary English Version
The messengers also told the king of Ammon that Jephthah had said: The Lord God of Israel helped his nation get rid of the Amorites and take their land. Now do you think you're going to take over that same territory?

Complete Jewish Bible
So now that Adonai the God of Isra'el has expelled the Emori before his people Isra'el, do you think that you will expel us?

Darby Translation
And now Jehovah the God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou take possession of it?

Easy-to-Read Version
"It was the Lord , the God of Israel, who forced the Amorites to leave their land. And he gave the land to the Israelites. Do you think you can make the Israelites leave this land?

George Lamsa Translation
So now after the LORD God of Israel has destroyed the Amorites from before his people Israel, are you to possess their land?

Good News Translation
So it was the Lord , the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites.

Literal Translation
And now, Jehovah our God has dispossessed the Amorite from before His people Israel. And would you possess it?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
So ye LORDE God of Israel droue awaye the Amorites before his people of Israel, and wilt thou coquere them?

American Standard Version
So now Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?

Bible in Basic English
So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
So nowe, seyng the Lord God of Israel hath cast out the Amorites before his people Israel, shouldest thou possesse it?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
So now the LORD, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?

King James Version (1611)
So nowe the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possesse it?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And now the Lord God of Israel has removed the Amorite from before his people Israel, and shalt thou inherit his land?

English Revised Version
So now the LORD, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?

Berean Standard Bible
Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you now possess it?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor the Lord God of Israel distriede Ammorrey, fiytynge ayens hym for his puple Israel. And wolt thou now haue in possessioun `his lond? Whether not tho thingis whiche Chamos, thi god, hadde in possessioun, ben due to thee bi riyt?

Young's Literal Translation
`And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorite from the presence of His people Israel, and thou wouldst possess it!

Update Bible Version
So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?

Webster's Bible Translation
So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldst thou possess it?

World English Bible
So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?

New King James Version
"And now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel; should you then possess it?

New Living Translation
"So you see, it was the Lord , the God of Israel, who took away the land from the Amorites and gave it to Israel. Why, then, should we give it back to you?

New Life Bible
'So the Lord, the God of Israel, drove the Amorites away from His people Israel. Now are you to take the land for your own?

New Revised Standard
So now the Lord , the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, therefore, it was, Yahweh God of Israel, that dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, - and shalt, thou, possess it?

Douay-Rheims Bible
So the Lord, the God of Israel, destroyed the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess his land?

Revised Standard Version
So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Since now the LORD, the God of Israel, drove out the Amorites from before His people Israel, are you then to possess it?

Contextual Overview

¹² And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land? ¹³ And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. ¹⁴ And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon: ¹⁵ And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: ¹⁶ But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; ¹⁷ Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh. ¹⁸ Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab. ¹⁹ And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. ²⁰ But Sihon 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 Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jephthah shews that the Israelites did not take the land of the Moabites or Ammonites, but that of the Amorites, which they had conquered from Sihon their king; and although the Amorites had taken the lands in question from the Ammonites, yet the title by which Israel held them was good, because they took them, not from the Ammonites, but from the Amorites.

Reciprocal: Genesis 48:22 - Amorite Joshua 5:1 - all the kings 2 Chronicles 20:11 - to cast us

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel,.... It is his doing, and not the work of the Israelites; it is he that dispossessed the Amorites, and put the Israelites into the possession of their land, and therefore they enjoy it by a good tenure:

and shouldest thou possess it? what through the blessing of God on their arms they have obtained by conquest, and he has settled them in; did they conquer, that thou should possess what they conquered? did their God put it into their hands to deliver it into thine? did they fight to recover for thee what thou hadst lost, and to put thee into the possession of it? did not they fight in their own defence, and their enemies and their land fell into their hands, and by the laws and right of nations became theirs? and canst thou expect to possess it? what reason is there for it?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Consult the marginal references. If the ark with the copy of the Law Deuteronomy 31:26 was at Mizpeh, it would account for Jephthah’s accurate knowledge of it; and this exact agreement of his message with Numbers and Deuteronomy would give additional force to the expression, “he uttered all his words before the Lord” Judges 11:11.

Judges 11:17

No mention is made of this embassy to Moab in the Pentateuch.

Judges 11:19

Into my place - This expression implies that the trans-Jordanic possessions of Israel were not included in the land of Canaan properly speaking.

Judges 11:21

The title “God of Israel” has a special emphasis here, and in Judges 11:23. in a narrative of transactions relating to the pagan and their gods.

Judges 11:24

Chemosh was the national god of the Moabites (see the marginal references); and as the territory in question was Moabitish territory before the Amorites took it from “the people of Chemosh,” this may account for the mention of Chemosh here rather than of Moloch, or Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. Possibly the king of the children of Ammon at this time may have been a Moabite.

Judges 11:25, Judges 11:26

Jephthah advances another historical argument. Balak, the king of Moab, never disputed the possession of Sihon’s kingdom with Israel.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 11:23. The Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites — Jephthah shows that the Israelites did not take the land of the Moabites or Ammonites, but that of the Amorites, which they had conquered from Sihon their king, who had, without cause or provocation, attacked them; and although the Amorites had taken the lands in question from the Ammonites, yet the title by which Israel held them was good, because they took them not from the Ammonites, but conquered them from the Amorites.

So now the Lord - hath dispossessed the Amorites. - The circumstances in which the Israelites were when they were attacked by the Amorites, plainly proved, that, unless Jehovah had helped them, they must have been overcome. God defeated the Amorites, and made a grant of their lands to the Israelites; and they had, in consequence, possessed them for three hundred years, Judges 11:26.