4. In those days the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5. And as they pressed hard upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to fetch Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them:
6. And they said to him: Come thou and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon.
7. And he answered them: Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father's house, and now you are come to me constrained by necessity?
8. And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be head over all the inhabitants of Galaad.
9. Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my band, shall I be your prince?
10. They answered him: The Lord who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.
11. Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.
12. And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land?
13. And he answered them: Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the confines of the Arnon unto the Jaboc and the Jordan: now therefore restore the same peaceably to me.
14. And Jephte again sent word by them, and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon:
15. Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
16. But when they came up out of Egypt, he walked through the desert to the Red Sea and came into Cades.
17. And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me to pass through thy land. But he would not condescend to his request. He sent also to the king of Moab, who likewise refused to give him passage. He abode therefore in Cades,
18. And went round the land of Edom at the side, and the land of Moab: and came over against the east coast of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon: and he would not enter the bounds of Moab.