12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, asking, “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, “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 give our land back to us peacefully.”
14. Jephthah sent the messengers to the Ammonite king again.
15. They said:“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of the people of Moab or Ammon.
16. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they went into the desert to the Red Sea and then to Kadesh.
17. Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Let the people of Israel go across your land.’ But the king of Edom refused. We sent the same message to the king of Moab, but he also refused. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.
18. “Then the Israelites went into the desert around the borders of the lands of Edom and Moab. Israel went east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River, the border 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, king of the city of Heshbon, asking, ‘Let the people of Israel pass through your land to go to our land.’
20. But Sihon did not trust the Israelites to cross his land. So he gathered all of his people and camped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
21. “But the Lord, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and his army over to Israel. All the land of the Amorites became the property of Israel.
22. So Israel took all the land of the Amorites from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, from the desert to the Jordan River.
23. “It was the Lord, the God of Israel, who forced out the Amorites ahead of the people of Israel. So do you think you can make them leave?
24. Take the land that your god Chemosh has given you. We will live in the land the Lord our God has given us!
25. “Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel or fight with the people of Israel?
26. For three hundred years the Israelites have lived in Heshbon and Aroer and the towns around them and in all the cities along the Arnon River. Why have you not taken these cities back in all that time?
27. I have not sinned against you, but you are sinning against me by making war on me. May the Lord, the Judge, decide whether the Israelites or the Ammonites are right.”
28. But the king of the Ammonites ignored this message from Jephthah.