In this third section, the dialogue plays an even more crucial role than the role of dialogue in the first two episodes (Judges 10:6–16, with specific dialogue in Judges 10:10–16, and Judges 10:17 – 11:11, with specific dialogue in Judges 11:5–11). In fact, it expands to fill the entire episode. It is more than a third of the entire Jephthah account (about 345 out of 1,000 words in the Hebrew text). The actual battle, by contrast, is described in merely two verses (Judges 11:32–33).1,2
The dialogue this time around happens at a distance, through diplomatic exchange via messengers.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”