25. Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us?
26. For 300 years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns round them, and all the cities on the banks of the River Arnon. Why haven't you taken them back in all this time?
27. No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The Lord is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
28. But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.
29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon.
30. Jephthah promised the Lord: “If you give me victory over the Ammonites,
31. I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”
32. So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory.
33. He struck at them from Aroer to the area round Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.
34. When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child.
35. When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”
36. She said to him, “If you have made a promise to the Lord, do what you said you would do to me, since the Lord has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.”
37. But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.”
38. He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless.