25 Now are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or wage war with them?
26 Israel has lived in Heshbon and its nearby towns, in Aroer and its nearby towns, and in all the cities along the banks of the River Arnon for three hundred years. Why did you not take them back during that time?
27 So I have not sinned against you, but it is you who are doing evil to me by waging war against me. May the Lord, the Judge, judge today between the children of Israel and the Ammonites.”
28 Yet the Ammonite king would not listen to the message that Jephthah had sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and went on to the Ammonites.
30 Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, “If You will indeed give the Ammonites into my hands,
31 then whatever comes out from the door of my house to meet me, when I return safely from the Ammonites, will surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”