Bible Strands
Judges 11:13
The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The king of Ammon responds to Jephthah’s initial diplomatic inquiry by asserting historical ownership of the disputed border region. This reply occurs immediately after Jephthah demands a justification for the Ammonite military advance.
The words — מֶלֶךְ (Me.lekh) translates as “king,” and בְּנֵי־עַמּוֹן (be.nei-ammon) literally means “sons of Ammon,” anchoring the speaker’s royal status and ethnic identity.
The thread — The king’s claim that Israel seized territory “from the Arnon to the Jordan” directly conflicts with Numbers 21:24, which limits Israel’s conquest to the Jabbok, and Deuteronomy 2:37, which records Israel’s deliberate avoidance of the Ammonite borderlands.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to test political assertions against previously recorded boundaries rather than accept diplomatic rhetoric as factual. It demands careful comparison of territorial claims with the explicit limits established in the text.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
Cross-references
- Genesis 32:22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
- Numbers 21:24 And Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok—but only up to the border of the Ammonites, because it was fortified.
- Deuteronomy 2:37 But you did not go near the land of the Ammonites, or the land along the banks of the Jabbok River, or the cities of the hill country, or any place that the LORD our God had forbidden.
- Deuteronomy 3:16 and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.
- Proverbs 19:5 A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.
- Proverbs 19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who pours out lies will perish.