, and they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy
land to the river.

11:20. But he, also despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to
pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude, went out
against him to Jasa, and made strong opposition.

11:21. And the Lord delivered him, with all his army, into the hands of
Israel, and he slew him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite,
the inhabitant of that country,

11:22. And all the coasts thereof from the Arnon to the Jaboc, and from
the wilderness to the Jordan.

11:23. So the Lord, the God of Israel, destroyed the Amorrhite, his
people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess his
land?

11:24. Are not those things which thy god Chamos possesseth, due to thee
by right? But what the Lord our God hath obtained by conquest, shall be
our possession:

Chamos... The idol of the Moabites and Ammonites. He argues from their
opinion, who thought they had a just title to the countries which they
imagined they had conquered by the help of their gods: how much more
then had Israel in indisputable title to the countries which God, by
visible miracles, had conquered for them.

11:25. Unless, perhaps, thou art better than Balac, the son of Sephor,
king of Moab: or canst shew that he strove against Israel, and fought
against him,

11:26. Whereas he hath dwelt in Hesebon, and the villages thereof, and
in Aroer, and its villages, and in all the cities near the Jordan, for
three hundred years. Why have you for so long a time attempted nothing
about this claim?

11:27. Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by
declaring an unjust war against me. The Lord be judge, and decide this
day, between Israel and the children of Ammon.

11:28. And the king of the children of Ammon would not hearken to the
words of Jephte, which he sent him by the messengers.

11:29. Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going
round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad, and passing over from
thence to the children of Ammon,

11:30. He made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the
children of Ammon into my hands,

11:31. Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house,
and shall meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon,
the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.

Whosoever, etc... Some are of opinion, that the meaning of this vow of
Jephte, was to consecrate to G