Judges 11:12-28 ▼

12 And Jephthah sends messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What [is this] to me and to you, that you have come to me, to fight in my land?”

13 And the king of the sons of Ammon says to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took my land in his coming up out of Egypt, from Arnon, and to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan; and now, restore them in peace.”

14 And Jephthah adds yet and sends messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon,

15 and says to him, “Thus said Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab, and the land of the sons of Ammon,

16 for in their coming up out of Egypt, Israel goes in the wilderness to the Red Sea, and comes to Kadesh,

17 and Israel sends messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass over through your land, and the king of Edom did not listen; and [Israel] has also sent to the king of Moab, and he has not been willing; and Israel abides in Kadesh,

18 and he goes through the wilderness, and goes around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and comes in at the rising of the sun of the land of Moab, and they encamp beyond Arnon, and have not come into the border of Moab, for Arnon [is] the border of Moab.

19 And Israel sends messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel says to him, Please let us pass over through your land, to my place,

20 and Sihon has not trusted Israel to pass over through his border, and Sihon gathers all his people, and they encamp in Jahaz, and fight with Israel;

21 and YHWH, God of Israel, gives Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they strike them, and Israel possesses all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that land,

22 and they possess all the border of the Amorite from Arnon, and to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness, and to the Jordan.

23 And now, YHWH, God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorite from the presence of His people Israel, and you would possess it!

24 That which your god Chemosh causes you to possess—do you not possess it? And all that which our God YHWH has dispossessed from our presence—we possess it.

25 And now, [are] you at all better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he strive with Israel at all? Did he fight against them at all?

26 In Israel’s dwelling in Heshbon and in its towns, and in Aroer and in its towns, and in all the cities which [are] by the sides of Arnon [for] three hundred years—and why have you not delivered them in that time?

27 And I have not sinned against you, and you are doing evil with me—to fight against me. YHWH, the Judge, judges between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon today.”

28 And the king of the sons of Ammon has not listened to the words of Jephthah which he sent to him,