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,
      3. That in that war in which they took this land out of the hands of Sihon king of the Amorites he was the aggressor, and not they, Judges 11:19; Judges 11:20. They sent a humble petition to him for leave to go through his land, willing to give him any security for their good behaviour in their march. "Let us pass (say they) unto our place, that is, to the land of Canaan, which is the only place we call ours, and to which we are pressing forward, not designing a settlement here." But Sihon not only denied them this courtesy, as Edom and Moab had done (had he only done so, who knows but Israel might have gone about some other way?) but he mustered all his forces, and fought against Israel (Judges 11:20; Judges 11:20), not only shut them out of his own land, but would have cut them off from the face of the earth (Numbers 21:23; Numbers 21:24), aimed at nothing less than their ruin, Judges 11:20; Judges 11:20. Israel therefore, in their war with him, stood in their own just and necessary defence, and therefore, having routed his army, might justly, in further revenge of the injury, seize his country as forfeited. Thus Israel came to the possession of this country, and doubted not to make good their title to it; and it is very unreasonable for the Ammonites to question their title, for the Amorites were the inhabitants of that country, and it was purely their land and their coasts that the Israelites then made themselves masters of, Judges 11:21; Judges 11:22.