6. And they said to him, "Come and be our leader, and fight against the sons of Ammon."
7. But he answered them: "Are you not the ones who hated me, and who cast me out of my father's house? And yet now you come to me, compelled by necessity?"
8. And the leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "But it is due to this necessity that we have approached you now, so that you may set out with us, and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be commander over all who live in Gilead."
9. Jephthah also said to them: "If you have come to me so that I may fight for you against the sons of Ammon, and if the Lord will deliver them into my hands, will I truly be your leader?"
10. They answered him, "The Lord who hears these things is himself the Mediator and the Witness that we shall do what we have promised."
11. And so Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and all the people made him their leader. And Jephthah spoke all his words, in the sight of the Lord, at Mizpah.
12. And he sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, who said on his behalf, "What is there between you and me, that you would approach against me, so that you might lay waste to my land?"
13. And he responded to them, "It is because Israel took my land, when he ascended from Egypt, from the parts of Arnon, as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan. Now therefore, restore these to me with peace."
14. And Jephthah again commissioned them, and he ordered them to say to the king of Ammon:
15. "Jephthah says this: Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon.
16. But when they ascended together from Egypt, he walked through the desert as far as the Red Sea, and he went into Kadesh.
17. And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Permit me to pass through your land.' But he was not willing to agree to his petition. Likewise, he sent to the king of Moab, who also refused to offer him passage. And so he delayed in Kadesh,
18. and he circled around the side of the land of Edom and the land of Moab. And he arrived opposite the eastern region of the land of Moab. And he made camp across the Arnon. But he was not willing to enter the borders of Moab. (Of course, Arnon is the border of the land of Moab.)
19. And so Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who was living at Heshbon. And they said to him, "Permit me to cross through your land as far as the river."