Through the Bible – Day 87

_1-5The leaders of the Gilead clan decided to ask a brave warrior named Jephthah son of Gilead to lead the attack against the Ammonites.

Even though Jephthah belonged to the Gilead clan, he had earlier been forced to leave the region where they had lived. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute, but his half-brothers were the sons of his father's wife.

One day his half-brothers told him, “You don't really belong to our family, so you can't have any of the family property.” Then they forced Jephthah to leave home.

Jephthah went to the country of Tob, where he was joined by a number of men who would do anything for money.

So the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah and said, ₆“Please come back to Gilead! If you lead our army, we will be able to fight off the Ammonites.”

₇“Didn't you hate me?” Jephthah replied. “Weren't you the ones who forced me to leave my family? You're coming to me now, just because you're in trouble.”

₈“But we do want you to come back,” the leaders said. “And if you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you the ruler of Gilead.”

₉“All right,” Jephthah said. “If I go back with you and the LORD lets me defeat the Ammonites, will you really make me your ruler?”

₁₀“You have our word,” the leaders answered. “And the LORD is a witness to what we have said.”

₁₁So Jephthah went back to Mizpah with the leaders of Gilead. The people of Gilead gathered at the place of worship and made Jephthah their ruler. Jephthah also made promises to them.

₁₂After the ceremony, Jephthah sent messengers to say to the king of Ammon, “Are you trying to start a war? You have invaded my country, and I want to know why!”

₁₃The king of Ammon replied, “Tell Jephthah that the land really belongs to me, all the way from the River Arnon in the south, to the River Jabbok in the north, and west to the River Jordan. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole it. Tell Jephthah to return it to me, and there won't be any war.”

₁₄Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of Ammon, ₁₅and they told him that Jephthah had said:

₂₃The messengers also told the king of Ammon that Jephthah had said:

₂₈But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message.

₂₉Then the LORD's Spirit took control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where ₃₀he promised the LORD, “If you will let me defeat the Ammonites ₃₁and come home safely, I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first.”

₃₂From Mizpah, Jephthah attacked the Ammonites, and the LORD helped him defeat them.

₃₃Jephthah and his army destroyed the twenty towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.

₃₄When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and she was his only child.

₃₅“Oh!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the LORD, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.”

₃₆“Father,” she said, “you made a sacred promise to the LORD, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you must do what you promised, even if it means I must die. ₃₇But first, please let me spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry together, because I can never get married and have children.”

₃₈“Yes, you may have two months,” Jephthah said.

She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children. ₃₉Then she went back to her father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married.

That's why ₄₀every year, Israelite girls walk around for four days, weeping for Jephthah's daughter.

₁The men of the Ephraim tribe got together an army and went across the River Jordan to Zaphon to meet with Jephthah. They said, “Why did you go to war with the Ammonites without asking us to help? Just for that, we're going to burn down your house with you inside!”

₂“But I did ask for your help,” Jephthah answered. “That was back when the people of Gilead and I were having trouble with the Ammonites, and you wouldn't do a thing to help us. ₃So when we realized you weren't coming, we risked our lives and attacked the Ammonites. And the LORD let us defeat them. There's no reason for you to come here today to attack me.”

₄But the men from Ephraim said, “You people of Gilead are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim. You even live on land that belongs to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.”

So Jephthah called together the army of Gilead, then they attacked and defeated the army from Ephraim. ₅The army of Gilead also posted guards at all the places where the soldiers from Ephraim could cross the River Jordan to return to their own land.

Whenever one of the men from Ephraim would try to cross the river, the guards would say, “Are you from Ephraim?”

“No,” the man would answer, “I'm not from Ephraim.”

₆The guards would then tell them to say “Shibboleth”, because they knew that people of Ephraim could say “Sibboleth”, but not “Shibboleth”.

If the man said “Sibboleth”, the guards would grab him and kill him there. Altogether, forty-two thousand men from Ephraim were killed in the battle and at the Jordan.

₇Jephthah was a leader of Israel for six years, before he died and was buried in his home town Mizpah in Gilead.

₈Ibzan, the next leader of Israel, came from Bethlehem. ₉He had thirty daughters and thirty sons, and he let them all marry outside his clan.

Ibzan was a leader for seven years, ₁₀before he died and was buried in Bethlehem.

₁₁Elon from the Zebulun tribe was the next leader of Israel. He was a leader for ten years, ₁₂before he died and was buried in Aijalon that belonged to the Zebulun tribe.

_13-15Abdon the son of Hillel was the next leader of Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, and each one of them had his own donkey. Abdon was a leader for eight years, before he died and was buried in his home town of Pirathon, which is in the part of the hill country of Ephraim where Amalekites used to live.

₁₆Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the meeting place on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the Scriptures, ₁₇he was given the book of Isaiah the prophet. He opened it and read,

₂₀Jesus closed the book, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the meeting place looked straight at Jesus.

₂₁Then Jesus said to them, “What you have just heard me read has come true today.”

₂₂All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, “Isn't he Joseph's son?”

₂₃Jesus answered:

₂₈When the people in the meeting place heard Jesus say this, they became so angry ₂₉that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. ₃₀But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.

₃₁Jesus went to the town of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people on the Sabbath. ₃₂His teaching amazed them because he spoke with power. ₃₃There in the Jewish meeting place was a man with an evil spirit. He yelled out, ₃₄“Hey, Jesus of Nazareth, what do you want with us? Are you here to get rid of us? I know who you are! You are God's Holy One.”

₃₅Jesus ordered the evil spirit to be quiet and come out. The demon threw the man to the ground in front of everyone and left without harming him.

₃₆They all were amazed and kept saying to each other, “What kind of teaching is this? He has power to order evil spirits out of people!” ₃₇News about Jesus spread all over that part of the country.