Judges 11:29-39a
Chapter 11
Jephthah vowed to the Lord:
“If you make me victorious,
I shall sacrifice to you whoever first comes out of my house to meet me when I return from battle. He shall be for the Lord, and I shall offer him up through the fire.”
Jephthah crossed the territory of the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave him victory.
He pursued them from the city of Aroer to the entrance of Minnith and Abel-keramin, seizing twenty towns. So he defeated the Ammonites.
When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter met him. She was so happy to see her father that she danced to the sound of her tambourine. She was an only child; he had no other daughter or son besides her.
When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and cried out:
“My daughter, you have shattered me; you have brought me misfortune. I have made a foolish vow to the Lord, and now I cannot return it.”
She answered him:
“Father, even if you have made such a foolish vow, you must do to me just as you promised, for the Lord has avenged you and crushed your enemies.
I beg you to give me two months to live with my companions in the mountains. There, I shall lament because I will never marry.”
Jephthah said to her:
“Go then.”
And he sent her away for two months. She and her companions went to the mountains and wept because she would never marry.
At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he fulfilled his vow. The young girl had never known a man. From this comes the Israelite custom