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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Judges 11 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/11.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/judges/11-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Judges 11</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/10.htm" title="Judges 10">◄</a> Judges 11 <a href="../judges/12.htm" title="Judges 12">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/judges/11.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the <span class="name">Lord</span> gives them to me—will I really be your head?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>The elders of Gilead replied, “The <span class="name">Lord</span> is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the <span class="name">Lord</span> in Mizpah.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>saying:</p><p class="emb">“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or the Sea of Reeds">a</a></sup></span> and on to Kadesh. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="emb"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>“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.</p> <p class="emb"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>“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.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Sihon, however, did not trust Israel <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or however, would not make an agreement for Israel">b</a></sup></span> to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.</p> <p class="emb"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>“Then the <span class="name">Lord</span>, 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, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.</p> <p class="emb"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>“Now since the <span class="name">Lord</span>, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the <span class="name">Lord</span> our God has given us, we will possess. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>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? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the <span class="name">Lord</span>, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”</p> <p class="pcontinued"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Then the Spirit of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>And Jephthah made a vow to the <span class="name">Lord</span>: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the <span class="name">Lord</span> gave them into his hands. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>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 <span class="name">Lord</span> that I cannot break.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the <span class="name">Lord</span>. Do to me just as you promised, now that the <span class="name">Lord</span> has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>“You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.</p><p class="reg">From this comes the Israelite tradition <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/11-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">16</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>the Sea of Reeds</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">20</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>however, would not make an agreement for Israel</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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