12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. The messengers asked the king, “What have you got against Israel? Why have you come to attack our land?”
13. The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah. He said, “We are fighting Israel because you took our land when you came up from Egypt. You took our land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River to the Jordan River. Now tell the people of Israel to give our land back to us in peace.”
14. Jephthah sent the messengers to the Ammonite king again.
15. They took this message:“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of the people of Moab or Ammon.
16. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they went into the desert. They went to the Gulf of Aqaba and then to Kadesh.
17. Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom. They asked, ‘Let the people of Israel go across your land.’ But the king of Edom didn’t let us. We sent the same message to the king of Moab. But he would not let us go across his land either. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.
18. “Then the Israelites went into the desert. They went around the borders of the lands of Edom and Moab. Israel walked east of the land of Moab. They camped on the other side of the Arnon River. It was the border of the land of Moab. They did not cross it to go into the land of Moab.
19. “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites. Sihon was the king of the city of Heshbon. The messengers asked Sihon, ‘Let the people of Israel pass through your land. We want to go to our land.’
20. But Sihon would not let the Israelites cross his land. He gathered all of his people and camped at Jahaz. Then the Amorites fought with Israel.
21. “But the Lord, the God of Israel, helped the Israelites to defeat Sihon and his army. All the land of the Amorites became the property of Israel.