complete verse (Judges 11:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Judges 11:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “They said, ‘Jephthah has said, ‘The people of Israel have not taken the land/country of Moab or that of Ammon.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Jephthah says, Israel has not taken the land of the Moabites, and [Israel] has not taken the land of the Ammonites either. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “to say, ‘We (excl.) did- not -take-away the land of Moab or of Amon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They said to him, ‘This is what Jephthah says: ‘It is not true that we Israelis took the land from the Moab people-group and the Ammon people-group.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Judges 11:15

And said to him: This clause introduces Jephthah’s response through his envoys. The subject of the verb said is Jephthah, and the pronoun him refers to the Ammonite king.

Thus says Jephthah uses the well-known formula from the prophetic speeches when the prophet announces the words of the LORD, so there may be some irony here. At the very least, this expression shows the messengers have great esteem for their “master” Jephthah. Many languages will have a special style for introducing the words of another person, especially a superior: “Jephthah says this,” “So speaks Jephthah,” “Here are the words of Jephthah,” or simply “Jephthah declares.”

Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites: Here Jephthah strongly denies the accusation of the Ammonite king, using his same words. For take away, see verse 11.13. The land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites refers to the territory east of the Jordan River. For Moab see verse 3.12. This is Jephthah’s statement of denial. A fuller explanation is given in the following verses.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Judges 11:15

11:15a to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says:

They said, “This is what Jephthah says:
-or-
They told him what Jephthah had said:

11:15b Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.

‘The people of Israel did not take away the land belonging to Moab or Ammon.
-or-
“The Israel people have not taken any land from Moab or Ammon.

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.