9. Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord delivers them up to me, I will be your leader.”
10. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord is witness between us that we will do as you say.”
11. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the army made him their leader and commander. Jephthah gave all his orders in the presence of the Lord in Mizpah.
12. Then he sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say, “What do you have against me that you come to fight with me in my land?”
13. The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Israel took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan when they came up from Egypt. Now restore it peaceably.”
14. Again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites,
15. saying to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
16. For when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.