Judges 11:12-28

International Children’s Bible

Jephthah Sends Messengers to the Ammonite King

¹² Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. The messengers asked the king, “What have you got against Israel? Why have you come to attack our land?”

¹³ The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah. He said, “We are fighting Israel because you took our land when you came up from Egypt. You took our land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River to the Jordan River. Now tell the people of Israel to give our land back to us in peace.”

¹⁴ Jephthah sent the messengers to the Ammonite king again. ¹⁵ They took this message:

“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of the people of Moab or Ammon. ¹⁶ When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they went into the desert. They went to the Gulf of Aqaba and then to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom. They asked, ‘Let the people of Israel go across your land.’ But the king of Edom didn’t let us. We sent the same message to the king of Moab. But he would not let us go across his land either. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.

¹⁸ “Then the Israelites went into the desert. They went around the borders of the lands of Edom and Moab. Israel walked east of the land of Moab. They camped on the other side of the Arnon River. It was the border of the land of Moab. They did not cross it to go into the land of Moab.

¹⁹ “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites. Sihon was the king of the city of Heshbon. The messengers asked Sihon, ‘Let the people of Israel pass through your land. We want to go to our land.’ ²⁰ But Sihon would not let the Israelites cross his land. He gathered all of his people and camped at Jahaz. Then the Amorites fought with Israel.

²¹ “But the Lord, the God of Israel, helped the Israelites to defeat Sihon and his army. All the land of the Amorites became the property of Israel. ²² So Israel took all the land of the Amorites. It went from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River. It also went from the desert to the Jordan River.

²³ “It was the Lord, the God of Israel, who forced out the Amorites ahead of the people of Israel. So do you think you can make the people of Israel leave this land? ²⁴ Surely you can live in the land which your god Chemosh has given you. So we will live in the land the Lord our God has given us!

²⁵ “Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor? He was the king of Moab. Did he ever quarrel or fight with the people of Israel? ²⁶ For 300 years the Israelites have lived in Heshbon and Aroer and the towns around them. They have lived for 300 years in all the cities along the Arnon River. Why have you not taken these cities back in all that time? ²⁷ I have not sinned against you. But you are sinning against me by making war on me! May the Lord, the Judge, decide whether the Israelites or Ammonites are right.”

²⁸ But the king of the Ammonites ignored this message from Jephthah.