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JUDGES
11.23

fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him.

4And it came to pass after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 5And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob. 6And they said unto Jephthah: 'Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.' 7And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: 'Did not ye hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?' 8And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: 'Therefore are we returned to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon, and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.' 9And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: 'If ye bring me back home to fight with the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, I will be your head.' 10And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: 'The Lord shall be witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.' 11Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.

12And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying: 'What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come unto me to fight against my land?' 13And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah: 'Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan; now therefore restore those cities peaceably.' 14And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon; 15and he said unto him: 'Thus saith Jephthah: Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon. 16But when they came up from Egypt, and Israel walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh; 17then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying: Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land; but the king of Edom hearkened not. And in like manner he sent unto the king of Moab; but he would not; and Israel abode in Kadesh. 18Then he walked through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they pitched on the other side of the Arnon; but they came not within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him: Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land unto my place. 20But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21And the Lord, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them; so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 22And they possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto the Jordan. 23So now the Lord, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel, and shouldest thou

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