Judges 11:12-28 - Jephthah Rejects Ammonite Claims
12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you have come against me to fight in my land?
13 And the king of the sons of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and to Jordan. Now therefore restore those lands peaceably.
14 And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the sons of Ammon. 15 And he said to him, So says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon. 16 But when they came up from Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh. 17 And Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, I pray you, let me pass through your land. But the king of Edom would not listen. And in the same way they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not. And Israel stayed in Kadesh.
18 And they went along through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but they did not come within the border of Moab; for Arnon was the border of Moab.
19 And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. And Israel said to him, We pray you, let us pass through your land to my place. 20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border. But Sihon gathered all his people together and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21 And Jehovah, the God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, who lived in that country. 22 And they possessed all the borders of the Amorites, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to Jordan.
23 So now Jehovah, the God of Israel has put out the Amorites before His people Israel, and should you possess it? 24 Will you not possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomever Jehovah our God shall drive out from before us, we will possess them. 25 And now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them 26 when Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities which are along by the borders of Arnon, for three hundred years? Why then did you not deliver them in that time? 27 So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. Jehovah, the Judge, will judge this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon. 28 And the king of the sons of Ammon did not listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent to him.