^2 (A)If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or ^(B)swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall ^(C)do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³⁰ And Jephthah ^(A)made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, ³¹ then 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, ^(B)shall surely be the Lord’s, ^(C)and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³² So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. ³³ And he ^[a]defeated them from Aroer as far as ^(D)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

³⁴ When Jephthah came to his house at ^(E)Mizpah, there was ^(F)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. ³⁵ And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he ^(G)tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I ^(H)have ^[c]given my word to the Lord, and ^(I)I cannot ^[d]go back on it.”

³⁶ So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, ^(J)do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because ^(K)the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.” ³⁷ Then 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.”

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

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

³ The Lord your God ^(A)Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. ^(B)Joshua himself crosses over before you, just ^(C)as the Lord has said. ^4 (D)And the Lord will do to them ^(E)as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. ^5 (F)The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you.

The Treaty with the Gibeonites

9 And it came to pass when ^(A)all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of ^(B)the Great Sea toward Lebanon—^(C)the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—heard about it, ² that they ^(D)gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one ^[a]accord.

³ But when the inhabitants of ^(E)Gibeon ^(F)heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, ⁴ they worked craftily, and went and ^[b]pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and ^[c]mended, ⁵ old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. ⁶ And they went to Joshua, ^(G)to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a ^[d]covenant with us.”

⁷ Then the men of Israel said to the ^(H)Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us; so ^(I)how can we make a covenant with you?”

⁸ But they said to Joshua, ^(J)“We are your servants.”

And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?”

⁹ So they said to him: ^(K)“From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God; for we have ^(L)heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and ^(M)all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan—to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. ¹¹ Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” ’ ¹² This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy. ¹³ And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.”

¹⁴ Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; ^(N)but they ^[e]did not ask counsel of the Lord. ¹⁵ So Joshua ^(O)made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

¹² But above all, my brethren, ^(A)do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into ^[a]judgment.