Judges 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a fierce warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was his father.

Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when those sons grew up, they threw Jephthah out. They told him, "You're not getting any share of our father's estate -- you're the son of another woman."

So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob. A bunch of worthless drifters gathered around him and went out raiding with him.

Some time later, the Ammonites went to war against Israel.

When the Ammonites attacked, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob.

They said to Jephthah, "Come be our commander so we can fight the Ammonites."

Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Aren't you the same people who hated me and threw me out of my father's house? Why are you coming to me now, just because you're in trouble?"

The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That's exactly why we've come back to you now. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you'll be the leader over everyone living in Gilead."

Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight the Ammonites and Yahweh gives them to me -- I will be your leader."

The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Yahweh is our witness -- we will do exactly what you say."

So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms before Yahweh at Mizpah.

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, "What do you have against me that you've come to attack my land?"

The king of the Ammonites told Jephthah's messengers, "Because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt -- from the Arnon River to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peacefully."

Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites

and told him: "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.

When Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh.

Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, 'Please let us pass through your land,' but the king of Edom wouldn't listen. They also sent word to the king of Moab, and he refused too. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

Then they traveled through the wilderness, going around the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They came to the eastern side of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon -- but they did not cross into Moab's territory, because the Arnon was Moab's border.

Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to get to our destination.'

But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered his entire army, camped at Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

Yahweh, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and his entire army over to Israel, and Israel defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who lived in that region.

They took possession of all the Amorite territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

So it was Yahweh, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people Israel -- and you think you should take it over?

Don't you keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you? Well, we'll keep whatever Yahweh our God has given us.

Are you really any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel? Did he ever go to war against them?

Israel has been living in Heshbon and its surrounding towns, in Aroer and its surrounding towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for three hundred years. Why didn't you take it back during all that time?

I haven't done anything wrong to you. You're the one doing wrong by making war against me. Let Yahweh, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites."

But the king of the Ammonites paid no attention to Jephthah's message.

Then the Breath of Yahweh came over Jephthah. He marched through Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced against the Ammonites.

And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh. He said, "If you will really hand the Ammonites over to me,

then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites -- it will belong to Yahweh, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."

Then Jephthah crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and Yahweh handed them over to him.

He struck them down from Aroer all the way to the area around Minnith -- twenty towns -- and as far as Abel-keramim. It was a devastating defeat. So the Ammonites were brought low before the Israelites.

When Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. She was his only child -- he had no other son or daughter.

When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh no -- my daughter! You've brought me to my knees. You've become the source of my devastation. I made a promise to Yahweh, and I can't take it back."

She said to him, "My father -- you gave your word to Yahweh. Do to me whatever you promised, since Yahweh has given you victory over your enemies, the Ammonites."

Then she said to her father, "Just let me have this one thing: Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends over the fact that I'll never be married."

"Go," he said. He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends and wept on the hills over the fact that she would never be married.

At the end of the two months, she came back to her father, and he did to her what he had vowed. She had never been with a man. And it became a tradition in Israel

that every year the young women of Israel would go out for four days to remember the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.