Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah.
And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jepthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of another woman.
Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him.
And it came to pass after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
And it was so, that, when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob;
and they said unto Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Jehovah deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Jehovah shall be {Hebrew: hearer.}witness between us; surely according to thy word so will we do.
Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spake all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah.
And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come unto me to fight against my land?
And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon;
and he said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah: Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,
but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;
then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land; but the king of Edom hearkened not. And in like manner he sent unto the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they came not within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
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 unto my place.
But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
And Jehovah, the 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 Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
And they possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto the Jordan.
So now Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever Jehovah our God hath dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
And now art thou anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its {Hebrew: daughters.}towns, and in Aroer and its {Hebrew: daughters.}towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; wherefore did ye not recover them within that time?
I therefore have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: Jehovah, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
Then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.
And Jephthah vowed a vow unto Jehovah, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
then it shall be, that {Or, whosoever}whatsoever cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Jehovah's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.
So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Jehovah delivered them into his hand.
And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto {That is, The meadow of vineyards.}Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house; and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
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 them that trouble me; for I have opened my mouth unto Jehovah, and I cannot go back.
And she said unto him, My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto Jehovah; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee on thine enemies, even on the children of Ammon.
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
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 knew not man. And it was a {Or, an ordinance}custom in Israel,
that the daughters of Israel went yearly to {Or, lament}celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Querverweise zu Richter 11,19 Ri 11,19
And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's highway, until we have passed thy border.
And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz; and he fought against Israel.
And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon unto the Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the {Hebrew: daughters.}towns thereof.
For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto the Arnon.
Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say,Come ye to Heshbon;Let the city of Sihon be built and established:
For a fire is gone out of Heshbon,A flame from the city of Sihon:It hath devoured Ar of Moab,The lords of {Or, Bamoth}the high places of the Arnon.
Woe to thee, Moab!Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh:He hath given his sons as fugitives,And his daughters into captivity,Unto Sihon king of the Amorites.
We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon,And we have laid waste even unto Nophah,Which reacheth unto Medeba.
Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.
And Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took the towns thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.
And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.
So they smote him, and his sons and all his people, until there was none left him remaining: and they possessed his land.
And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
Let me pass through thy land: I will go {Hebrew: by the way, by the way.}along by the highway, I will turn neither unto the right hand nor to the left.
Thou shalt sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only let me pass through on my feet;
as the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites that dwell in Ar, did unto me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Jehovah our God giveth us.
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Jehovah thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart {Hebrew: strong.}obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as at this day.
And Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.
Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, unto battle at Jahaz.
And Jehovah our God delivered him up before us; and we smote him, and his {Or, son}sons, and all his people.
And we took all his cities at that time, and {Hebrew: devoted.}utterly destroyed every {Hebrew: city of men.}inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining:
Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, unto battle at Edrei.
And Jehovah said unto me, Fear him not; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.
So Jehovah our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we took not from them; threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the {Or, country towns}unwalled towns a great many.
And we {Hebrew: devoted.}utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every {Hebrew: city of men.}inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey unto ourselves.
And we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon unto mount Hermon;
(which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir);
all the cities of the {Or, table-land}plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.)
And this land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites:
and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half-tribe of Manasseh; {Or, all the region of Argob. (All that Bashan is called &c.}all the region of Argob, {Or, with}even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth-jair, unto this day.)
And I gave Gilead unto Machir.
And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, {Or, for a border}and the border thereof, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
the Arabah also, and the Jordan {Or, for a border}and the border thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the {Or, springs}slopes of Pisgah eastward.
With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Jehovah gave them:
from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the {Or, table-land}plain of Medeba unto Dibon;
and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;
and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salecah;
all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for these did Moses smite, and drove them out.