Judges 11:15

11:15 and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not steal¹ the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites.

Judges 11:17-18

11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us² to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request.³ Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate.⁴ So Israel stayed at Kadesh. 11:18 Then Israel⁵ went through the desert and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River;⁶ they did not go through Moabite territory (the Arnon was Moab’s border).

Judges 11:25

11:25 Are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he dare to quarrel with Israel? Did he dare to fight with them?⁷

¹tn Or “take”; or “seize.”

²tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

³tn Heb “did not listen.”

⁴tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”

³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁴tn The Hebrew grammatical constructions of all three rhetorical questions indicate emphasis, which “really” and “dare to” are intended to express in the translation.