Jephthah Delivers Israel

11 Now ^(A)Jephthah the Gileadite was ^(B)a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. ² And Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.” ³ Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of ^(C)Tob, and ^(D)worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.

⁴ After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. ⁵ And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of ^(E)Tob. ⁶ And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.” ⁷ But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?” ⁸ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and ^(F)be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” ⁹ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.” ¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ^(G)“The Lord will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say.” ¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people ^(H)made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words ^(I)before the Lord at ^(J)Mizpah.

¹² Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” ¹³ And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, ^(K)“Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the ^(L)Arnon to the ^(M)Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” ¹⁴ Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵ and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: ^(N)Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, ¹⁶ but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness ^(O)to the Red Sea and ^(P)came to Kadesh. ^17 (Q)Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ ^(R)but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel ^(S)remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸ “Then they journeyed through the wilderness and ^(T)went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and ^(U)arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and ^(V)camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. ^19 (W)Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’ ²⁰ but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. ²¹ And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country. ²² And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. ²³ So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? ²⁴ Will you not possess what ^(X)Chemosh your god gives you to possess? ^(Y)And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. ²⁵ Now are you any better than ^(Z)Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? ²⁶ While Israel lived ^(AA)in Heshbon and its villages, and ^(AB)in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time? ²⁷ I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. ^(AC)The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” ²⁸ But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

Jephthah's Tragic Vow

^29 (AD)Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. ³⁰ And Jephthah ^(AE)made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, ³¹ then whatever^[a] comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites ^(AF)shall be the Lord's, and ^(AG)I will offer it^[b] up for a burnt offering.” ³² So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. ³³ And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of ^(AH)Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his home at ^(AI)Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him ^(AJ)with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, ^(AK)and I cannot take back my vow.” ³⁶ And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” ³⁷ So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” ³⁸ So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, ^(AL)who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

Jephthah's Conflict with Ephraim

12 ^(AM)The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.” ² And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. ³ And when I saw that you would not save me, ^(AN)I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” ⁴ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, ^(AO)“You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” ⁵ And the Gileadites captured ^(AP)the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” ⁶ they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at ^(AQ)the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.^[c]

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

⁸ After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. ⁹ He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. ¹⁰ Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

¹¹ After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. ¹² Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³ After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. ¹⁴ He had forty ^(AR)sons and thirty grandsons, who ^(AS)rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. ¹⁵ Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(A)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(B)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(C)“My food is ^(D)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(E)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(F)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(G)sower and ^(H)reaper ^(I)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(J)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(K)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(L)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans ^(M)from that town believed in him ^(N)because of ^(O)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed ^(P)because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(Q)and we know that this is indeed ^(R)the Savior ^(S)of the world.”

⁴³ After ^(T)the two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (For Jesus himself had testified ^(U)that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵ So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ^(V)having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ^(W)they too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

⁴⁶ So he came again to ^(X)Cana in Galilee, ^(Y)where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus ^(Z)had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, ^(AA)“Unless you^[a] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹ The official said to him, “Sir, come down ^(AB)before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his servants^[b] met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵² So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour^[c] the fever left him.” ⁵³ The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, ^(AC)and all his household. ^54 (AD)This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.