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.
29. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Jephthah. Jephthah passed through Gilead and Manasseh and the city of Mizpah in Gilead to the land of the Ammonites.
30. Jephthah made a promise to the Lord, saying, “If you will hand over the Ammonites to me,
31. I will give you as a burnt offering the first thing that comes out of my house to meet me when I return from the victory. It will be the Lord’s.”
32. Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to him.
33. In a great defeat Jephthah struck them down from the city of Aroer to the area of Minnith, and twenty cities as far as the city of Abel Keramim. So the Ammonites were defeated by the Israelites.
34. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, his daughter was the first one to come out to meet him, playing a tambourine and dancing. She was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters.
35. When Jephthah saw his daughter, he tore his clothes to show his sorrow. He said, “My daughter! You have made me so sad because I made a promise to the Lord, and I cannot break it!”
36. Then his daughter said, “Father, you made a promise to the Lord. So do to me just what you promised, because the Lord helped you defeat your enemies, the Ammonites.”
37. She also said, “But let me do one thing. Let me be alone for two months to go to the mountains. Since I will never marry, let me and my friends go and cry together.”