Jephthah now questions the Ammonites, asking by what right they are currently claiming the former land of the Amorites as their own.

So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel: So then is literally “And now.” Jephthah makes a conclusion here, so translators should find an introductory expression appropriate to this context. New Living Translation has “So you see….” For the LORD, the God of Israel, see verse 11.21. Dispossessed renders the causative form of the Hebrew verb translated “took possession of” in verse 11.21-22. The verb dispossessed refers to taking possession of something from someone else. Here God took the possession of the land away from the Amorites. New Revised Standard Version says the LORD “conquered the Amorites,” but that is not exactly the idea here. Better models are “took away the land from the Amorites” (New Living Translation), “drove out the Amorites” (Good News Translation), and “chased the Amorites away.” There is a play on words throughout this section between the forms of the Hebrew verb rendered “took possession of” and dispossessed, and it would be good to maintain this stylistic feature if possible. From before his people Israel is literally “from the faces of his people Israel.” The Hebrew word for people (ʿam) is used both for the Israelites and their enemies (see verse 2.4). In the covenant agreement between Yahweh and Israel, Yahweh is specified as Israel’s God and Israel as his people. The prepositional phrase from before his people Israel does not mean Israel lost the land, but rather they gained it. In many languages it will be necessary to make this clear. We might say “So it was the LORD, the God of Israel, who took away the land from the Amorites and gave it to his people Israel.”

And are you to take possession of them?: This rhetorical question (literally “And you, will you possess us?”) seems to express a great deal of irony but its meaning is debated. You, which renders an independent singular pronoun in Hebrew, refers emphatically to the Ammonite king. But the Hebrew pronoun for “us” is rendered in several different ways. Revised Standard Version says them, which seems ambiguous, referring either to the Amorites or the Israelites. New International Version takes the land as the object of the verb: “what right have you to take it over?” Contemporary English Version is similar with “Now do you think you’re going to take over the same territory?” But keeping to the Hebrew we might say “And you, you want to drive us out?” Translators will have to decide first on the meaning to adopt here and then how to formulate this question in a natural way in their language.

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 .