And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites …: This verse expands on and reinforces Jephthah’s argument. If the consequence in the last verse is introduced by “So,” the Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And can be omitted here (Good News Translation). The pronoun they refers to the Israelites. For took possession of, see verse 11.21. The Hebrew word for territory (see verse 11.18) differs from the one rendered “land” in the previous verse, but they have the same meaning in this context.

From the Arnon to the Jabbok was the south-north axis of the land (see verse 11.13), and from the wilderness to the Jordan was its east-west axis. Here the wilderness refers to the desert east of the Amorites’ land. For the Jordan, see verse 3.28.

A translation model for this verse is:

• The Israelites took control of all the Amorite land from the Arnon River [in the south] to the Jabbok River [in the north]. Their land also extended from the desert [in the east] to the Jordan River [in the west].

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .