6. “Come,” they said to Jephthah, “be our commander so that we can fight the Ammonites.”
7. “Are you not the ones who hated me and drove me from my father’s house?” Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Why do you come to me now, when you are in distress?”
8. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “This is the reason we have come back to you now: if you go with us to fight against the Ammonites, you shall be the leader of all of the inhabitants of Gilead.”
9. Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord delivers them up to me, I will be your leader.”
10. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us that we will do as you say.”
11. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the army made him their leader and commander. Jephthah gave all his orders in the presence of the Lord in Mizpah.
12. Then he sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say, “What do you have against me that you come to fight with me in my land?”
13. The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Israel took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan when they came up from Egypt. Now restore it peaceably.”
14. Again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites,
15. saying to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
16. For when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
17. Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, “Let me pass through your land.” But the king of Edom did not give consent. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he too was unwilling. So Israel remained in Kadesh.
18. Then they went through the wilderness, and bypassing the land of Edom and the land of Moab, they arrived east of the land of Moab and encamped across the Arnon. Thus they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab.
19. Then Israel sent messengers to the Amorite king Sihon, who was king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, “Let me pass through your land to my own place.”
20. But Sihon refused to let Israel pass through his territory. He gathered all his soldiers, and they encamped at Jahaz and fought Israel.