The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the ESV. Switch to the ESV to read along with the audio.
11 ¶ Now Jephthah existed then, a Gileadite, a mighty man of valour, the son of a harlot unto whom Gilead had begat a son.
2 And Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they threw Jephthah out and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house, for thou art the son of a strange woman.
3 Then Jephthah fled from his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob; and vain men joined themselves to Jephthah and went out with him.
4 ¶ And it came to pass after some days that the sons of Ammon made war against Israel.
5 And when the sons of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob;
6 and they said unto Jephthah, Come, and thou shalt be our captain that we may fight with the sons of Ammon.
7 And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me and expel me out of my father’s house? Why, therefore, are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?
8 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, For this same reason we turn again to thee now that thou may go with us and fight against the sons of Ammon and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9 Then Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD delivers them before me, shall I be your head?
10 And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Let the LORD hear between us, if we do not comply with thy words.
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and prince over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
12 ¶ And Jephthah sent ambassadors unto the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me that thou art come against me to fight in my land?
13 And the king of the sons of Ammon replied unto the ambassadors of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok and unto the Jordan; now, therefore, restore those lands again peaceably.
14 Then Jephthah sent ambassadors again unto the king of the sons of Ammon,
15 saying unto him, Thus hath Jephthah said, Israel did not take land from Moab, nor land from the sons of Ammon,
16 but Israel came up from Egypt and walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land. But the king of Edom would not hear them. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab, but he would not consent either; therefore Israel abode in Kadesh.
18 Then they went along through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and came by the side of the rising of the sun to the land of Moab; they pitched their camp on the other side of Arnon and did not enter within the border of Moab, for Arnon was the border of Moab.
19 And 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 into my place.
20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together and pitched camp in Jahaz and fought against Israel.
21 But the LORD 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 Amorite that inhabited that land.
22 And they possessed all the border of the Amorites from Arnon even unto Jabbok and from the wilderness even unto the Jordan.
23 So now the LORD God of Israel has expelled the Amorites from before his people Israel and should thou possess it?
24 If Chemosh thy god should expel anyone for you, would thou not possess it? So whoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
25 Art thou better now in any thing than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Peradventure did he ever strive against Israel? Peradventure did he ever fight against them?
26 Furthermore, Israel has dwelt in Heshbon and her towns and in Aroer and her towns and in all the cities that are along by the coasts of Arnon, for three hundred years. Why, therefore, did ye not recover them within that time?
27 Therefore, I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me; let the LORD, who is the Judge, judge this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.
28 But the king of the sons of Ammon did not hear the reasons of Jephthah which he sent him.
29 ¶ Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went unto the sons of Ammon.
30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the sons of Ammon into my hands,
31 whoever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer them up for a burnt offering.
32 So Jephthah went over unto the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
33 And he smote them from Aroer, even unto Minnith twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.
34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of those that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.
36 And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the LORD has taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the sons of Ammon.
37 And she said again unto her father, Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months, and she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
39 And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. And she had never known a man. From here came the custom in Israel
40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year.
12 ¶ And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together towards the Aquilon and said unto Jephthah, Why didst thou go over to fight against the sons of Ammon and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thy house upon thee with fire.
2 And Jephthah replied unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon, and when I called you, ye did not defend me from their hands.
3 Seeing, therefore, that ye did not defend me, I put my life in my hands and went over against the sons of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have ye come up against me this day to fight with me?
4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they had said, Ye are fugitives of Ephraim; ye are Gileadites among Ephraim and Manasseh.
5 And the Gileadites took the passages of the Jordan from Ephraim; and it was such that when any of those of Ephraim who had escaped would say, May I pass? The men of Gilead would ask them, Art thou an Ephrathite? If he said, No;
6 then they would say unto him, Now say Shibboleth. {Heb. a flowing stream} And he would say Sibboleth; {Heb. an ear of wheat} for he could not pronounce it the same. Then they would take him and slay him at the passages of the Jordan. And at that time forty-two thousand of those of Ephraim fell.
7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
8 ¶ After him Ibzan, of Bethlehem, judged Israel,
9 who had thirty sons and thirty daughters, whom he married abroad and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
10 Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.
11 And after him Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years.
12 And Elon, the Zebulonite, died and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.
13 And after him Abdon, the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel.
14 And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons that rode on seventy he asses, and he judged Israel eight years.
15 And Abdon, the son of Hillel the Pirathonite, died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim in the mount of Amalek.
1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with the God.
3 All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 ¶ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light.
9 That Word was the true Light, which lightens every man that comes into this world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
13 who are not born of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
15 ¶ John bore witness of him and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
16 And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses, but the grace and the truth of God came through Jesus, the Christ.
18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
19 ¶ And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
20 And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he said, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No.
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to those that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.
24 And those who were sent were of the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him and said unto him, Why dost thou baptize then if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you, whom ye know not;
27 he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
2 When thou shalt come unto me, I will walk in the way of perfection and understand. I will walk in the midst of my house in the perfection of my heart.
3 I will set nothing of Belial before my eyes: I hate the work of those that betray; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whosoever secretly slanders his neighbour, I will cut off; he that has a high look and a proud heart I will not suffer.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walks in the way of perfection, he shall serve me.
7 He that works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.
13 ¶ Even in laughter, the scorner has pain in his heart, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
14 ¶ The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man shall be separated from him.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International