You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever the Lord our God gives us.
Parallel translations
- WEB Won’t you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
- KJV Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
- BSB Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.
- NKJV Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.
- NASB Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jephthah notes Ammon keeps what Chemosh gives, so Israel keeps what the LORD gives. He uses Ammon's own logic against its claim.
Overview
Jephthah argues from Ammon's perspective that they accept lands their god grants, so Israel may hold what the LORD grants. He references Chemosh, commonly linked to Moab, perhaps reflecting shared regional worship or a rhetorical point. Whether the naming is loose or pointed, his deeper claim is that the LORD, the true God, has given Israel its inheritance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Num 21:29Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.
- Ps 78:55He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- Mic 4:5Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.
- Josh 3:10Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.
- 1 Kgs 11:7Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
- Deut 18:12For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.
- Ps 44:2You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.
- Jer 48:46Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity.
- Jer 48:7For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken. Chemosh will go out into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
- Deut 9:4–5Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 11:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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