and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,
Jephthah appealed to the king of Ammon with three arguments. His point was that the Ammonites had no right to Israel’s territory east of the Jordan that they were trying to obtain by force. First, he traced the history whereby this territory had come into Israel’s possession, showing that Ammon had no claim on Gilead (Judges 11:15-22). Israel had not attacked any territory held by Ammon or Moab when God’s people approached the Promised Land in Moses’ day. Israel had taken the land in dispute from the Amorites who had previously wrested it from the Ammonites.