Judges 11:29-12:7

New King James Version

Jephthah’s Vow and Victory

²⁹Then ^(A)the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon. ³⁰And Jephthah ^(B)made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, ³¹then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, ^(C)shall surely be the Lord’s, ^(D)and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. ³³And he ^[a]defeated them from Aroer as far as ^(E)Minnith—twenty cities—and to ^[b]Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

Jephthah’s Daughter

³⁴When Jephthah came to his house at ^(F)Mizpah, there was ^(G)his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he ^(H)tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I ^(I)have ^[c]given my word to the Lord, and ^(J)I cannot ^[d]go back on it.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, ^(K)do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because ^(L)the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.” ³⁷Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and ^[e]bewail my virginity, my ^[f]friends and I.”

³⁸So he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he ^(M)carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She ^[g]knew no man.

And it became a custom in Israel ⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to ^[h]lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Jephthah’s Conflict with Ephraim

12 Then ^(N)the men of Ephraim ^[i]gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!”

²And Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; and when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. ³So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I ^(O)took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” ⁴Now Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You Gileadites ^(P)are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites.” ⁵The Gileadites seized the ^(Q)fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” ⁶then they would say to him, “Then say, ^(R)‘Shibboleth’!”^[j] And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not ^[k]pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.