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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//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 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><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="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</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">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Jephthah</h3><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_1"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.1-Judg.11.5" class="v7_11_1">1-5</span>The leaders of the Gilead clan decided to ask a brave warrior named Jephthah son of Gilead to lead the attack against the Ammonites.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_1">Even though Jephthah belonged to the Gilead clan, he had earlier been forced to leave the region where they had lived. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute, but his half brothers were the sons of his father's wife.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_1">One day his half brothers told him, “You don't really belong to our family, so you can't have any of the family property.” Then they forced Jephthah to leave home.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_1">Jephthah went to the country of Tob, where he was joined by a number of men who would do anything for money.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_1">So the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah and said, </span><span class="v7_11_6"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.6" class="v7_11_6">6</span>“Please come back to Gilead! If you lead our army, we will be able to fight off the Ammonites.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_7"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.7" class="v7_11_7">7</span>“Didn't you hate me?” Jephthah replied. “Weren't you the ones who forced me to leave my family? You're only coming to me now because you're in trouble.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_8"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.8" class="v7_11_8">8</span>“But we do want you to come back,” the leaders said. “And if you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you the ruler of Gilead.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_9"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.9" class="v7_11_9">9</span>“All right,” Jephthah said. “If I go back with you and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> lets me defeat the Ammonites, will you really make me your ruler?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_10"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.10" class="v7_11_10">10</span>“You have our word,” the leaders answered. “And the <span class="nd">Lord</span> is a witness to what we have said.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_11"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.11" class="v7_11_11">11</span>So Jephthah went back to Mizpah<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.11!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> with the leaders of Gilead. The people of Gilead gathered at the place of worship and made Jephthah their ruler. Jephthah also made promises to them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_12"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.12" class="v7_11_12">12</span>After the ceremony, Jephthah sent messengers to say to the king of Ammon, “Are you trying to start a war? You have invaded my country, and I want to know why!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_13"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.13" class="v7_11_13">13</span>The king of Ammon replied, “Tell Jephthah that the land really belongs to me, all the way from the Arnon River in the south, to the Jabbok River in the north, and west to the Jordan River. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole it. Tell Jephthah to return it to me, and there won't be any war.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_14"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.14" class="v7_11_14">14</span>Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of Ammon, </span><span class="v7_11_15"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.15" class="v7_11_15">15</span>and they told him that Jephthah had said:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_15">Israel hasn't taken any territory from Moab or Ammon. </span><span class="v7_11_16"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.16" class="v7_11_16">16</span>When the Israelites came from Egypt, they traveled across the desert to the Red Sea<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.16!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and then to Kadesh. </span><span class="v7_11_17"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.17" class="v7_11_17">17</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.17!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> They sent messengers to the king of Edom and said, “Please, let us go through your country.” But the king of Edom refused. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he wouldn't let them cross his country either. And so the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_18"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.18" class="v7_11_18">18</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.18!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> A little later, the Israelites set out into the desert, going east of Edom and Moab, and camping on the eastern side of the Arnon River gorge. The Arnon is the eastern border of Moab, and since the Israelites didn't cross it, they didn't even set foot in Moab.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_19"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.19" class="v7_11_19">19</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.19!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> The Israelites sent messengers to the Amorite King Sihon of Heshbon. “Please,” they said, “let our people go through your country to get to our own land.”</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_20"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.20" class="v7_11_20">20</span>Sihon didn't think the Israelites could be trusted, so he called his army together. They set up camp at Jahaz, then they attacked the Israelite camp. </span><span class="v7_11_21"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.21" class="v7_11_21">21</span>But the <span class="nd">Lord</span> God helped Israel defeat Sihon and his army. Israel took over all of the Amorite land where Sihon's people had lived, </span><span class="v7_11_22"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.22" class="v7_11_22">22</span>from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the Jordan River in the west.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_23"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.23" class="v7_11_23">23</span>The messengers also told the king of Ammon that Jephthah had said:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_23">The <span class="nd">Lord</span> God of Israel helped his nation get rid of the Amorites and take their land. Now do you think you're going to take over that same territory? </span><span class="v7_11_24"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.24" class="v7_11_24">24</span>If Chemosh your god<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.24!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> takes over a country and gives it to you, don't you have a right to it? And if the <span class="nd">Lord</span> takes over a country and gives it to us, the land is ours!</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_25"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.25" class="v7_11_25">25</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.25!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Are you better than Balak the son of Zippor? He was the king of Moab, but he didn't quarrel with Israel or start a war with us.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_26"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.26" class="v7_11_26">26</span>For 300 years, Israelites have been living in Heshbon and Aroer and the nearby villages, and in the towns along the Arnon River gorge. If the land really belonged to you Ammonites, you wouldn't have waited until now to try to get it back.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v7_11_27"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.27" class="v7_11_27">27</span>I haven't done anything to you, but it's certainly wrong of you to start a war. I pray that the <span class="nd">Lord</span> will show whether Israel or Ammon is in the right.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_28"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.28" class="v7_11_28">28</span>But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_29"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.29" class="v7_11_29">29</span>Then the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Spirit took control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where </span><span class="v7_11_30"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.30" class="v7_11_30">30</span>he promised the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, “If you will let me defeat the Ammonites </span><span class="v7_11_31"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.31" class="v7_11_31">31</span>and come home safely, I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_32"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.32" class="v7_11_32">32</span>From Mizpah, Jephthah attacked the Ammonites, and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> helped him defeat them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_33"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.33" class="v7_11_33">33</span>Jephthah and his army destroyed the 20 towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Jephthah's Daughter</h3><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_34"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.34" class="v7_11_34">34</span>When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and she was his only child.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_35"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.35" class="v7_11_35">35</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.35!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> “Oh no!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_36"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.36" class="v7_11_36">36</span>“Father,” she said, “you made a sacred promise to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you must do what you promised, even if it means I must die. </span><span class="v7_11_37"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.37" class="v7_11_37">37</span>But first, please let me spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry together, because I can never get married and have children.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_38"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.38" class="v7_11_38">38</span>“Yes, you may have two months,” Jephthah said.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_38">She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children. </span><span class="v7_11_39"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.39" class="v7_11_39">39</span>Then she went back to her father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_11_39">That's why </span><span class="v7_11_40"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.11.40" class="v7_11_40">40</span>every year, Israelite girls walk around for four days, weeping for<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.11.40!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> Jephthah's daughter.</span></p></div> </div> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">11.11 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Mizpah: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">In chapters 10–12, Mizpah is the name of a town in Gilead (see 11.29), not the same town as the Mizpah of chapters 20,21.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">11.16 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Red Sea: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Hebrew <char style="tl">yam suph</char>, here referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, since the term is extended to include the northeastern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at Exodus 13.18).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">11.24 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Chemosh your god: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Chemosh was actually the national god of Moab, not Ammon. The land that Ammon was trying to take over had belonged to the Moabites before belonging to the Amorites (see Numbers 21.26). So the Ammonites may have thought that Chemosh controlled it.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">11.40 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">weeping for: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “remembering.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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