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.”
36. “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.
37. But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”