Judges 11:34-40 - Jephthah's Daughter

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and this is what he saw: his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. And she was his only child; except for her he had no son or daughter. ³⁵ And when he saw her, he tore his clothes [in grief] and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me great disaster, and you are the cause of ruin to me; for I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.”

³⁶ And she said to him, “My father, you have made a vow to the Lord; do to me as you have vowed, since the Lord has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.” ³⁷ And she said to her father, “Let this one thing be done for me; let me alone for two months, so that I may go to the mountains and weep over my virginity, I and my companions.”

³⁸ And he said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months; and she left with her companions, and wept over her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed; and she had no relations with a man. It became a custom in Israel, ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went yearly to tell the story of the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.