Judges 11:16
“but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;”
What does Judges 11:16 mean?
Jephthah is reminding the king of Ammon of Israel's actual history, not fabricated claims. After escaping Egypt, the Israelites didn't immediately invade the lands east of the Jordan—they wandered through the wilderness for decades, eventually reaching Kadesh, a place of testing and complaint. He's essentially saying, "Look at what actually happened: we took the long, hard route, not a shortcut through your territory." It's a historical reality check in a tense negotiation, showing that Israel's presence in the region wasn't born from conquest of Ammon's lands but from following their own path through difficult circumstances.