Judges 11:25

ARGUMENT NO. 3

This was a political argument founded upon the fact that Moab had once claimed some of the disputed territory, but had lost it when Sihon, the king of the Ammonites had forcefully displaced Moab and occupied the land they once had. Jephthah here points out that after Israel defeated and dispossessed Sihon and occupied that strip between the Arnon and the Jabbok, that not even Moab, who once owned it, ever disputed Israel's right to possess it. That being true, who was the king of Ammon that he should lay any claim against the disputed territory?

"And now art thou anything better than Balak; the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?"

Of course, the Book of Numbers revealed that Balak thoroughly hated Israel and employed Balaam to curse Israel, but still it was a fact that Moab acknowledged Israel's right to the land they had taken away from the Amorites and their king Sihon.