11. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh at Mizpah.
12. And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What is between you and me that you have come to me to make war against my land?”
13. And the king of the Ammonites said to Jephthah’s messengers, “Because Israel took my land from the Arnon up to the Jabbok and the Jordan when they came up from Egypt; so then, restore it peacefully.”
14. Once again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites,
15. and he said to him, “Thus says Jephthah, ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites,
16. because when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and went to Kadesh.
17. Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let us cross through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.
18. Then they traveled through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped beyond the Arnon; and they did not go into the territory of Moab because the Arnon was the border of Moab.
19. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us cross through your land to our country.’
20. But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people and then encamped at Jahaz; and he made war with Israel.
21. And Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; and Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites inhabiting that land.
22. They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon up to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness up to the Jordan.
23. So then Yahweh, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before his people Israel, and you want to possess it?
24. Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gave you to possess? Whoever Yahweh our God has driven out before us, we will possess it.