Part 153 (1/2)
10:8. And they were afflicted, and grievously oppressed for eighteen years, all they that dwelt beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorrhite, who is in Galaad:
10:9. Insomuch that the children of Ammon, pa.s.sing over the Jordan, wasted Juda, and Benjamin, and Ephraim: and Israel was distressed exceedingly.
10:10. And they cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned against thee, because we have forsaken the Lord our G.o.d, and have served Baalim.
10:11. And the Lord said to them: Did not the Egyptians, and the Amorrhites, and the children of Ammon, and the Philistines,
10:12. The Sidonians also, and Amalec, and Chanaan, oppress you, and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand?
10:13. And yet you have forsaken me, and have wors.h.i.+pped strange G.o.ds: therefore I will deliver you no more:
10:14. Go, and call upon the G.o.ds which you have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of distress.
10:15. And the children of Israel said to the Lord: We have sinned, do thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth thee: only deliver us this time.
10:16. And saying these things, they cast away out of their coasts all the idols of strange G.o.ds, and served the Lord their G.o.d: and he was touched with their miseries.
10:17. And the children of Ammon shouting together, pitched their tents in Galaad: against whom the children of Israel a.s.sembled themselves together, and camped in Maspha.
10:18. And the princes of Galaad said one to another: Whosoever of us shall first begin to fight against the children of Ammon, he shall be the leader of the people of Galaad.
Judges Chapter 11
Jephte is made ruler of the people of Galaad: he first pleads their cause against the Ammonites; then making a vow obtains a signal victory; he performs his vow.
11:1. There was at that time Jephte, the Galaadite, a most valiant man, and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, and his father was Galaad.
11:2. Now Galaad had a wife of whom he had sons: who, after they were grown up, thrust out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother.
11:3. Then he fled and avoided them, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men and robbers, and they followed him as their prince.
11:4. In those days the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
11:5. And as they pressed hard upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to fetch Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them:
11:6. And they said to him: Come thou, and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon.
11:7. And he answered them: Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father's house, and now you are come to me, constrained by necessity?
11:8. And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be head over all the inhabitants of Galaad.
11:9. Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my hand, shall I be your prince?
11:10. They answered him: The Lord, who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.
11:11. Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.
11:12. And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name: What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land?
11:13. And he answered them: Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the confines of the Arnon unto the Jaboc and the Jordan: now, therefore, restore the same peaceably to me.