10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “May the Lord be a witness between us if we do not act according to your word.”
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people set him over them as ruler and leader. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
12 Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king to say, “What problem is there between you and me, that you have come to me to wage war in my land?”
13 The Ammonite king said to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because when Israel came up from Egypt, they took my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and as far as the Jordan. Now return it peacefully.”
14 Again Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king,
15 and said to him,“Jephthah says this: Israel did not take the land of Moab, nor the Ammonite land;
16 for when Israel came up from Egypt, they went into the desert as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.