Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, March 20 [Press play below]

10.1 After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to save Israel. He lived in Shamir in the mountainous region of Ephraim.
10.2 He judged Israel for 23 years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.
10.3 After him Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel for 22 years.
10.4 He had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair; they are in the land of Gilead.
10.5 After that Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
10.6 Again the Israelites did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, and they began to serve the Baals, the Ashtoreth images, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned Jehovah and did not serve him.
10.7 Then Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites.
10.8 So they crushed and greatly oppressed the Israelites in that year—for 18 years they oppressed all the Israelites on the side of the Jordan that had been the land of the Amorites in Gilead.
10.9 The Ammonites would also cross the Jordan to fight against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was greatly distressed.
10.10 Then the Israelites called to Jehovah for help, saying: “We have sinned against you, for we abandoned our God and served the Baals.”
10.11 But Jehovah said to the Israelites: “Did I not save you from Egypt and from the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,
10.12 the Sidonians, Amalek, and Midian when they oppressed you? When you cried out to me, I saved you out of their hand.
10.13 But you abandoned me and served other gods. That is why I will not save you again.
10.14 Go to the gods whom you have chosen and call for help. Let them save you in your time of distress.”
10.15 But the Israelites said to Jehovah: “We have sinned. Do to us whatever is good in your eyes. Only save us, please, this day.”
10.16 And they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Jehovah, so that he could no longer tolerate Israel’s suffering.
10.17 In time the Ammonites were called together, and they pitched camp in Gilead. So the Israelites gathered together and pitched camp in Mizpah.
10.18 The people and the princes of Gilead said to one another: “Who will take the lead in fighting against the Ammonites? Let him become the chief over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
11.1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was Jephthah’s father.
11.2 But Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. When the sons of his wife grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him: “You will have no inheritance in our father’s household, for you are the son of another woman.”
11.3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob. And idle men joined company with Jephthah, and they followed him.
11.4 After a while, the Ammonites fought against Israel.
11.5 And when the Ammonites fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead immediately went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob.
11.6 They said to Jephthah: “Come and serve as our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”
11.7 But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: “Was it not you who hated me so much that you drove me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
11.8 At this the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah: “That is why now we have returned to you. If you go with us and fight against the Ammonites, you will become our leader over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
11.9 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: “If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and Jehovah defeats them for me, then I will indeed become your leader!”
11.10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah: “Let Jehovah be the witness between us if we do not do as you say.”
11.11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah.
11.12 Jephthah then sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying: “What do you have against me that you have come to attack my land?”
11.13 So the king of the Ammonites said to the messengers of Jephthah: “It is because Israel took my land when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and as far as the Jordan. Now return it peaceably.”
11.14 But Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites
11.15 to say to him: “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of the Moabites and the land of the Ammonites,
11.16 for when they came up out of Egypt, Israel walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
11.17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: “Please let us pass through your land,” but the king of Edom did not listen. Also to the king of Moab they sent word, but he did not consent. So Israel kept dwelling in Kadesh.
11.18 When they walked through the wilderness, they bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped in the region of the Arnon; they did not come within the boundary of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.
11.19 “‘After that Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him: “Please let us pass through your land to our own place.”
11.20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped in Jahaz and fought against Israel.
11.21 At this Jehovah the God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into Israel’s hand, so that they defeated them and Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that land.
11.22 Thus they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
11.23 “‘It was Jehovah the God of Israel who drove out the Amorites from before his people Israel, and now would you drive them out?
11.24 Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh gives you to possess? So everyone whom Jehovah our God has driven out from before us is the one we will drive out.
11.25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
11.26 While Israel was dwelling in Heshbon and its dependent towns and in Aroer and its dependent towns and in all the cities that are by the banks of the Arnon for 300 years, why did you never try to take them back during that time?
11.27 I have not sinned against you, but you are wrong to attack me. Let Jehovah the Judge be judge today between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.’”
11.28 But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to the message that Jephthah sent to him.
11.29 Jehovah’s spirit came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh to go to Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he continued on to the Ammonites.
11.30 Then Jephthah made a vow to Jehovah and said: “If you give the Ammonites into my hand,
11.31 then whoever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites will become Jehovah’s, and I will offer that one up as a burnt offering.”
11.32 So Jephthah went to fight against the Ammonites, and Jehovah gave them into his hand.
11.33 He struck them down with a very great slaughter from Aroer all the way to Minnith—20 cities—and as far as Abel-keramim. Thus the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
11.34 Finally Jephthah came to his home in Mizpah, and look! his daughter was coming out to meet him, playing the tambourine and dancing! Now she was his one and only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter.
11.35 When he saw her, he ripped his garments and said: “Oh no, my daughter! You have broken my heart, for you have become the one I have banished. Now I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I am unable to turn back.”
11.36 But she said to him: “My father, if you have opened your mouth to Jehovah, do to me as you have promised, since Jehovah has executed vengeance for you upon your enemies, the Ammonites.”
11.37 She then said to her father: “Let this be done for me: Let me be alone for two months, and let me go away into the mountains, and let me weep over my virginity with my female companions.”
11.38 At this he said: “Go!” So he sent her away for two months, and she went to the mountains with her companions to weep over her virginity.
11.39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, after which he carried out the vow he had made regarding her. She never had relations with a man. And it became a custom in Israel:
11.40 From year to year, the young women of Israel would go to give commendation to the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.