15. saying: “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
16. But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh.
17. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18. “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.
19. “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’
20. Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
21. “Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country,
22. capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.
23. “Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over?
24. Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess.
25. Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them?
26. For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time?
27. I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
28. The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.
29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.
30. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands,
31. whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32. Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands.
33. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.
35. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”