Old/New Testament

Chapter 11

Jephthah. ¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. ² Gilead’s wife bore him sons, but 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 Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. Jephthah gathered some worthless fellows around himself, and they went out with him.

⁴ After some time, the Ammonites made war against Israel. ⁵ When the Ammonites fought against Israel, the elders of Israel went to bring back Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶ They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader so that we can fight against the Ammonites.” ⁷ 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 that you are in trouble?” ⁸ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “This is why we have returned to you, so that you can go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be the leader of all of those who live in Gilead.” ⁹ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back to fight against the Ammonites, and the Lord delivers them up to me, will I then be your leader?” ¹⁰ The elders of Gilead answered, “The Lord will be a witness between us if we do not do what you have said.” ¹¹ Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah spoke all of his words before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹² Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites asking, “What do you have against us? Why have you come here to fight in our land?” ¹³ The king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt. It is the land that lies between the Arnon and the Jabbok, all along the Jordan. Now, give it back to me peacefully.” ¹⁴ Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵ saying, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not take away the land of the Moabites nor the land of the Ammonites. ¹⁶ When they came up out of Egypt, the people of Israel passed through the desert up to the Red Sea and then on to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, “Please let me pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not listen. The same thing happened when they sent to the king of Moab; he would not agree, so Israel remained in Kadesh.

¹⁸ “ ‘They then went through the desert, skirting the land of Edom and the land of Moab. Passing along on the eastern side of Moab, they camped on the far side of the Arnon. They did not cross over the border with Moab, for the Arnon was the border with Moab.

¹⁹ “ ‘Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land into our territory.” ²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel enough to let them pass through his land. Sihon and all of his forces camped at Jahaz and fought against Israel. ²¹ The Lord, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all of his men into Israel’s hands. They defeated them, and so Israel took possession of all of the land of the Amorites who lived in that territory. ²² They captured the entire land of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

²³ “ ‘Now since it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who has driven the Amorites out from before the people of Israel, who are you that you should take it over? ²⁴ Should you not possess what Chemosh,^[a] your god, has given you to possess? Whatever the Lord, our God, has given us to possess, we will possess it.

²⁵ “ ‘Are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight against it? ²⁶ Israel lived in Heshbon and the towns dependent upon it, in Aroer and the towns dependent upon it, and in all of the cities that lie along the Arnon for three hundred years. Why did you not take it back then? ²⁷ I have not wronged you, but you have done this evil to me by attacking me. Let the Lord, the judge, decide between the Israelites and the Ammonites today.’ ”

²⁸ The king of the Ammonites did not heed the message that Jephthah had sent him. ²⁹ The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He crossed over into Gilead and Manasseh, passing through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced against the Ammonites.

³⁰ Jephthah’s Vow.^[b] Jephthah made a vow to the Lord saying, “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, ³¹ then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I come back in peace from the Ammonites, I will surely offer it up to the Lord as a burnt offering.”

³² Jephthah went to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. ³³ He devastated some twenty cities between Aroer and up to near Minnith, as far away as Abel-keramim. It was a total massacre, and the Ammonites were subjected to the Israelites.

³⁴ When Jephthah came back to Mizpah, to his home, it was his daughter who came out to meet him dancing and playing the tambourines. (She was his only child, for beside her there were no other sons or daughters.) ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Woe is me, for my daughter has made me miserable and wretched. I made a vow to the Lord; I cannot break it.” ³⁶ “My father,” she said, “you have made a vow to the Lord. Do to me what you have vowed to do, for the Lord has taken vengeance for you upon your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ Only let me do this one thing, my father,” she continued, “may I roam around the hill country to mourn my virginity, for I will never marry.” ³⁸ He answered, “Go!” She and her friends went into the hill country for two months, mourning her virginity. ³⁹ When the two months were over, she returned to her father. He did what he had promised in his vow to do to her. She never knew any man. This is why there is a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ for young women in Israel to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year.

Chapter 12

Shibboleth Murders. ¹ The Ephraimites gathered together and they traveled northward to Jephthah and they said, “Why did you go out to fight against the Ammonites and you did not summon us to go with you? We are going to set your house on fire!”

² Jephthah answered, “I and the people who were with me fought a great battle against the Ammonites, and although I summoned you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. ³ When I realized that you would not help me, I put my life in my hands and crossed over to fight against the Ammonites. It is the Lord who delivered them into my hands. Why have you come here today to fight against me?” ⁴ Jephthah then summoned the Gileadites and they fought against the Ephraimites. The Gileadites struck down the Ephraimites, because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

⁵ The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan that lead to Ephraim. When one of the survivors of the Ephraimites said, “Let us cross over,” the Gileadites said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” ⁶ then they said to him, “Say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they would seize him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed.

⁷ Jephthah was a judge over Israel for six years. Jephthah the Gileadite died, and he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

Ibzan.^{[c] 8} After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem was a judge over Israel. ⁹ He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his thirty daughters away in marriage to those outside of his clan, and he took in thirty young women from outside of his clan for his sons to marry. Ibzan was a judge over Israel for seven years. ¹⁰ When Ibzan died, he was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹ Elon. After him, Elon the Zebulunite was a judge over Israel for ten years. ¹² When Elon the Zebulunite died, he was buried in Aijalon of Zebulun.

¹³ Abdon. After him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite was a judge over Israel. ¹⁴ He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys. He was a judge over Israel for eight years. ¹⁵ When Adbon, the son of Hillel the Pirathonite, died, he was buried in Pirathon in the land of the Ephraimites in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Chapter 6

Picking Grain on the Sabbath.^{[a] 1} On one Sabbath, when Jesus was going through a field of grain, his disciples picked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. ² Some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God and took and ate the sacred bread that only the priests were permitted to eat, and he shared it with his companions.” ⁵ Then he said to them, “The Son of Man,^[b] is lord of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand. ⁶ On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach. A man was there whose right hand was withered. ⁷ The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath so that they would have a charge to bring against him.

⁸ But Jesus was fully aware of their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here and stand before us.” The man got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I put this question to you: Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ After looking around at all of them, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. ¹¹ But they were filled with fury and discussed among themselves what they might do with Jesus.

¹² Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles.^[c] It was in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray, and he spent the entire night in prayer to God. ¹³ Then, when it was daylight, he summoned his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he designated as apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ¹⁵ Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, ¹⁶ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

¹⁷ The Crowds Seek Out Jesus.^[d] He then came down with them and stood on a spot of level ground, where there was a large crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all sections of Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come there to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. Those who were afflicted by unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, because power came forth from him and healed them all.

The Sermon on the Plain^[e]

²⁰ The Beatitudes.^[f] Then, turning to his disciples, he began to speak:

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and ostracize you, when they insult you and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice on that day and dance for joy, for your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the Prophets.