¹⁸ And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall ^(A)be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

¹¹ Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him ^(A)head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words ^(B)before the Lord in Mizpah.

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

²⁵ So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, ^(A)will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”

⁷ And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead.

⁵ And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶ Then they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon.”

⁷ So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ^(A)“Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in ^[a]distress?”

^8 (B)And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have ^(C)turned^[b] again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be ^(D)our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

The Continuing Conquest of Canaan^(A)

1 Now after the ^(B)death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel ^(C)asked the Lord, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the ^(D)Canaanites to fight against them?”