7. But Jephthah said to the elders of the land of Gilead, “You forced me to leave my father’s house. You hate me. So why are you coming to me now that you are having trouble?”
8. The elders from Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is the reason we have come to you now. Please come with us and fight against the Ammonites. You will be the commander over all the people living in Gilead.”
9. Then Jephthah said to the elders from Gilead, “If you want me to come back to Gilead and fight the Ammonites, I will do it. But if the Lord helps me win, I will be your new leader.”
10. The elders from Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is listening to everything we are saying. And we promise to do everything you tell us to do.”
11. So Jephthah went with the elders from Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah repeated all of his words in front of the Lord at the city of Mizpah.
12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites with this message: “What is the problem between the Ammonites and the Israelites? Why have you come to fight in our land?”
13. The king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah, “We are fighting Israel because the Israelites took our land when they came up from Egypt. They took our land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River to the Jordan River. Now, tell the Israelites to give our land back to us without fighting for it.”
14. So the messengers of Jephthah took this message back to Jephthah. Then Jephthah sent the messengers to the king of the Ammonites again.
15. They took this message: “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of the Moabites or the land of the Ammonites.
16. When the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, they went into the desert. They went to the Red Sea. Then they went to Kadesh.
17. The Israelites sent messengers to the king of Edom. The messengers asked for a favor. They said, ‘Let the Israelites cross through your land.’ But the king of Edom didn’t let us go through his land. We also sent the same message to the king of Moab. But the king of Moab would not let us go through his land either. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.
18. “Then the Israelites went through the desert and around the edges of the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab. They made their camp on the other side of the Arnon River. They did not cross the border of the land of Moab. (The Arnon River was the border of the land of Moab.)
19. “Then the Israelites sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites. Sihon was the king of the city of Heshbon. The messengers asked Sihon, ‘Let the Israelites pass through your land. We want to go to our land.’
20. But King Sihon of the Amorites would not let the Israelites cross his borders. So Sihon gathered all of his people and made a camp at Jahaz. Then the Amorites fought with the Israelites.
21. But the Lord, the God of Israel, helped the Israelites defeat Sihon and his army. So the land of the Amorites became the property of the Israelites.
22. The Israelites got all the land of the Amorites from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River. The land also went from the desert to the Jordan River.
23. “It was the Lord, the God of Israel, who forced the Amorites to leave their land. And he gave the land to the Israelites. Do you think you can make the Israelites leave this land?