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Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad, and passing over from thence to the children of Ammon,

He made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,

Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.

And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

And he smote them from Aroer till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards, with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.

And when Jephte returned into Maspha, to his house, his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children.

But behold there arose a sedition in Ephraim. And passing towards the north, they said to Jephte: When thou wentest to fight against the children of Ammon, why wouldst thou not call us, that we might go with thee? Therefore we will burn thy house.

And he answered them: I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon: and I called you to assist me, and you would not do it.

And when I saw this, I put my life in my own hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon and the Lord delivered them into my hands. What have I deserved, that you should rise up to fight against me?

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to her, and said: Thou art barren and without children: but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.

So the children of Dan sent five most valiant men, of their stock and family, from Saraa and Esthaol, to spy out the land, and to view it diligently: and they said to them: Go, and view the land. They went on their way, and when they came to mount Ephraim, they went into the house of Michas, and rested there:

And when they were going forward, and had put before them the children and the cattle, and all that was valuable,

And the children of Dan said to him: See thou say no more to us, lest men enraged come upon thee, and thou perish with all thy house.

His master answered him: I will not go into the town of another nation, who are not of the children of Israel, but I will pass over to Gabaa:

And behold they saw an old man, returning out of the field and from his work in the evening, and he also was of mount Ephraim, and dwelt as a stranger in Gabaa; but the men of that country were the children of Jemini.

Then all the children of Israel went out, and gathered together as one man, from Dan to Bersabee, with the land of Galaad, to the Lord in Maspha:

(Nor were the children of Benjamin ignorant that the children of Israel were come up to Maspha.) And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was killed being asked, how so great a wickedness had been committed,

You are all here, O children of Israel, determine what you ought to do.

Deliver up the men of Gabaa, that have committed this heinous crime, that they may die, and the evil may be taken away out of Israel. But they would not hearken to the proposition of their brethren the children of Israel: