Old/New Testament
11 1-2 Now Jephthah was a great warrior from the land of Gilead, but his mother was a prostitute. His father (whose name was Gilead) had several other sons by his legitimate wife, and when these half brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah out of the country.
“You son of a whore!” they said. “You’ll not get any of our father’s estate.”
3 So Jephthah fled from his father’s home and lived in the land of Tob. Soon he had quite a band of malcontents as his followers, living off the land as bandits. 4 It was about this time that the Ammonites began their war against Israel. 5 The leaders of Gilead sent for Jephthah, 6 begging him to come and lead their army against the Ammonites.
7 But Jephthah said to them, “Why do you come to me when you hate me and have driven me out of my father’s house? Why come now when you’re in trouble?”
8 “Because we need you,” they replied. “If you will be our commander-in-chief against the Ammonites, we will make you the king of Gilead.”
9 “Sure!” Jephthah exclaimed. “Do you expect me to believe that?”
10 “We swear it,” they replied. “We promise with a solemn oath.”
11 So Jephthah accepted the commission and was made commander-in-chief and king. The contract was ratified before the Lord in Mizpah at a general assembly of all the people. 12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon, demanding to know why Israel was being attacked. 13 The king of Ammon replied that the land belonged to the people of Ammon; it had been stolen from them, he said, when the Israelis came from Egypt; the whole territory from the Arnon River to the Jabbok and the Jordan was his, he claimed.
“Give us back our land peaceably,” he demanded.
14-15 Jephthah replied, “Israel did not steal the land. 16 What happened was this: When the people of Israel arrived at Kadesh, on their journey from Egypt after crossing the Red Sea, 17 they sent a message to the king of Edom asking permission to pass through his land. But their petition was denied. Then they asked the king of Moab for similar permission. It was the same story there, so the people of Israel stayed in Kadesh.
18 “Finally they went around Edom and Moab through the wilderness, and traveled along the eastern border until at last they arrived beyond the boundary of Moab at the Arnon River; but they never once crossed into Moab. 19 Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and asked permission to cross through his land to get to their destination.
20 “But King Sihon didn’t trust Israel, so he mobilized an army at Jahaz and attacked them. 21-22 But the Lord our God helped Israel defeat King Sihon and all your people, so Israel took over all of your land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness to the Jordan River.
23 “So you see, it was the Lord God of Israel who took away the land from the Amorites and gave it to Israel. Why, then, should we return it to you? 24 You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever Jehovah our God gives us! 25 And besides, just who do you think you are? Are you better than King Balak, the king of Moab? Did he try to recover his land after Israel defeated him? No, of course not. 26 But now after three hundred years you make an issue of this! Israel has been living here for all that time, spread across the land from Heshbon to Aroer, and all along the Arnon River. Why have you made no effort to recover it before now? 27 No, I have not sinned against you; rather, you have wronged me by coming to war against me; but Jehovah the Judge will soon show which of us is right—Israel or Ammon.”
28 But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah’s message.
29 At that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he led his army across the land of Gilead and Manasseh, past Mizpah in Gilead, and attacked the army of Ammon. 30-31 Meanwhile Jephthah had vowed to the Lord that if God would help Israel conquer the Ammonites, then when he returned home in peace, the first person coming out of his house to meet him would be sacrificed as a burnt offering to the Lord!
32 So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him the victory. 33 He destroyed the Ammonites with a terrible slaughter all the way from Aroer to Minnith, including twenty cities, and as far away as Vineyard Meadow. Thus the Ammonites were subdued by the people of Israel.
34 When Jephthah returned home his daughter—his only child—ran out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish.
“Alas, my daughter!” he cried out. “You have brought me to the dust. For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot take it back.”
36 And she said, “Father, you must do whatever you promised the Lord, for he has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But first let me go up into the hills and roam with my girlfriends for two months, weeping because I’ll never marry.”
38 “Yes,” he said. “Go.”
And so she did, bewailing her fate with her friends for two months. 39 Then she returned to her father, who did as he had vowed. So she was never married.[a] And after that it became a custom in Israel 40 that the young girls went away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah’s daughter.
12 Then the tribe of Ephraim mobilized its army at Zaphon and sent this message to Jephthah: “Why didn’t you call for us to help you fight against Ammon? We are going to burn down your house, with you in it!”
2 “I summoned you, but you refused to come!” Jephthah retorted. “You failed to help us in our time of need, 3 so I risked my life and went to battle without you, and the Lord helped me to conquer the enemy. Is that anything for you to fight us about?”
4 Then Jephthah, furious at the taunt of Ephraim that the men of Gilead were mere outcasts[b] and the scum of the earth, mobilized his army and attacked the army of Ephraim. 5 He captured the fords of the Jordan behind the army of Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim tried to cross the river, the Gilead guards challenged him.
“Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?” they asked. If the man replied that he was not, 6 then they demanded, “Say ‘Shibboleth.’” But if he couldn’t pronounce the H and said, “Sibboleth” instead of “Shibboleth,” he was dragged away and killed. So forty-two thousand people of Ephraim died there at that time.
7 Jephthah was Israel’s judge for six years. At his death he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
8 The next judge was Ibzan, who lived in Bethlehem. 9-10 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He married his daughters to men outside his clan and brought in thirty girls to marry his sons. He judged Israel for seven years before he died, and was buried at Bethlehem.
11-12 The next judge was Elon from Zebulun. He judged Israel for ten years and was buried at Aijalon in Zebulun.
13 Next was Abdon (son of Hillel) from Pirathon. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He was Israel’s judge for eight years. 15 Then he died and was buried in Pirathon, in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
6 One Sabbath as Jesus and his disciples were walking through some grainfields, they were breaking off the heads of wheat, rubbing off the husks in their hands and eating the grains.
2 But some Pharisees said, “That’s illegal! Your disciples are harvesting grain, and it’s against the Jewish law to work on the Sabbath.”
3 Jesus replied, “Don’t you read the Scriptures? Haven’t you ever read what King David did when he and his men were hungry? 4 He went into the Temple and took the shewbread, the special bread that was placed before the Lord, and ate it—illegal as this was—and shared it with others.” 5 And Jesus added, “I am[a] master even of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath he was in the synagogue teaching, and a man was present whose right hand was deformed. 7 The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched closely to see whether he would heal the man that day, since it was the Sabbath. For they were eager to find some charge to bring against him.
8 How well he knew their thoughts! But he said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand here where everyone can see.” So he did.
9 Then Jesus said to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, “I have a question for you. Is it right to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do harm? To save life, or to destroy it?”
10 He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Reach out your hand.” And as he did, it became completely normal again. 11 At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to plot his murder.
12 One day soon afterwards he went out into the mountains to pray, and prayed all night. 13 At daybreak he called together his followers and chose twelve of them to be the inner circle of his disciples. (They were appointed as his “apostles,” or “missionaries.”) 14-16 Here are their names: Simon (he also called him Peter), Andrew (Simon’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus), Simon (a member of the Zealots, a subversive political party), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).
17-18 When they came down the slopes of the mountain, they stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers who, in turn, were surrounded by the crowds. For people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon had come to hear him or to be healed. And he cast out many demons. 19 Everyone was trying to touch him, for when they did, healing power went out from him and they were cured.
20 Then he turned to his disciples and said, “What happiness there is for you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours! 21 What happiness there is for you who are now hungry, for you are going to be satisfied! What happiness there is for you who weep, for the time will come when you shall laugh with joy! 22 What happiness it is when others hate you and exclude you and insult you and smear your name because you are mine![b] 23 When that happens, rejoice! Yes, leap for joy! For you will have a great reward awaiting you in heaven. And you will be in good company—the ancient prophets were treated that way too!
24 “But, oh, the sorrows that await the rich. For they have their only happiness down here. 25 They are fat and prosperous now, but a time of awful hunger is before them. Their careless laughter now means sorrow then. 26
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.