Judges 11 · שופטים

Now Yiftaĥ the Gil῾adite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a harlot: and Gil῾ad begot Yiftaĥ.

And Gil῾ad’s wife bore him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they drove out Yiftaĥ, and said to him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

Then Yiftaĥ fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tov: and idle fellows joined themselves to Yiftaĥ, and went out with him.

And it came to pass in the course of time, that the children of ῾Ammon made war against Yisra᾽el.

And when the children of ῾Ammon made war against Yisra᾽el, the elders of Gil῾ad went to fetch Yiftaĥ out of the land of Tov:

and they said to Yiftaĥ, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of ῾Ammon.

And Yiftaĥ said to the elders of Gil῾ad, Did you not hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why have you come to me now when you are in distress?

And the elders of Gil῾ad said to Yiftaĥ, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of ῾Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gil῾ad.

And Yiftaĥ said to the elders of Gil῾ad, If you bring me back home to fight against the children of ῾Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

And the elders of Gil῾ad said to Yiftaĥ, The Lord is witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.

Then Yiftaĥ went with the elders of Gil῾ad, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Yiftaĥ uttered all his words before the Lord in Miżpe.

And Yiftaĥ sent messengers to the king of the children of ῾Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?

And the king of the children of ῾Ammon answered the messengers of Yiftaĥ, Because Yisra᾽el took away my land, when they came up out of Miżrayim, from Arnon as far as the Yabboq, and the Yarden: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.

And Yiftaĥ sent messengers again to the king of the children of ῾Ammon:

and said to him, Thus says Yiftaĥ, Yisra᾽el did not take away the land of Mo᾽av, nor the land of the children of ῾Ammon:

but when Yisra᾽el came up from Miżrayim, and walked through the wilderness to the Sea of Suf, and came to Qadesh;

then Yisra᾽el sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken. And in like manner they sent to the king of Mo᾽av: but he would not consent: and so Yisra᾽el remained in Qadesh.

Then they went along through the wilderness, and went round the land of Edom, and the land of Mo᾽av, and came by the east side of the land of Mo᾽av, and camped on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Mo᾽av: for Arnon was the border of Mo᾽av.

And Yisra᾽el sent messengers to Siĥon king of the Emori, the king of Ḥeshbon; and Yisra᾽el said to him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land to my place.

But Siĥon did not trust Yisra᾽el to pass through his border: but Siĥon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Yahaż and fought against Yisra᾽el.

And the Lord God of Yisra᾽el delivered Siĥon and all his people into the hand of Yisra᾽el, and they smote them: so Yisra᾽el possessed all the land of the Emori, the inhabitants of that country.

And they possessed all the border of the Emori from Arnon even as far as Yabboq, and from the wilderness as far as the Yarden.

So now the Lord God of Yisra᾽el has driven out the Emori from before his people Yisra᾽el, and shouldst thou possess their land?

Wilt not thou possess that which Kemosh thy god gives thee to possess? So likewise that which the Lord our God has voided before us, that shall we possess.

And now art thou at all better than Balaq the son of Żippor, king of Mo᾽av? did he ever strive against Yisra᾽el, or did he ever fight against them,

while Yisra᾽el dwelt in Ḥeshbon and its hamlets, and in ῾Ar῾or and its hamlets, and in all the cities that are along by the shores of Arnon, for three hundred years? why did you not recover them within that time?

But I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the Lord the Judge be judge this day between the children of Yisra᾽el and the children of ῾Ammon.

Howbeit the king of the children of ῾Ammon did not hearken to the words of Yiftaĥ which he sent him.

Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Yiftaĥ and he passed over Gil῾ad, and Menashshe, and passed over Miżpe of Gil῾ad, and from Miżpe of Gil῾ad he passed over to the children of ῾Ammon.

And Yiftaĥ vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, If Thou shalt deliver the children of ῾Ammon into my hands,

then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of ῾Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

So Yiftaĥ passed over to the children of ῾Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

And he smote them from ῾Aro῾er, as far as Minnit, twenty cities, and as far as Avel-keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of ῾Ammon were subdued before the children of Yisra᾽el.

And Yiftaĥ came to Miżpe to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou hast become the cause of trouble to me: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot go back.

And she said to him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth; seeing that the Lord has taken vengeance for thee of thy enemies, of the children of ῾Ammon.

And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go and wander down the mountain sides, and bewail my virginity, I and my friends.

And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and wept for her virginity upon the mountains.

And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Yisra᾽el,

that the daughters of Yisra᾽el went yearly to lament the daughter of Yiftaĥ, the Gil῾adite four days in the year.