Judges 11:34–40

³⁴Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. She was his only child; he did not have a son or daughter except her. ³⁵And the moment he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Ah! My daughter, you have caused me to bow down, and you have become my trouble. I made an oath^l to Yahweh, and I cannot take it back.” ³⁶She said to him, “My father, you made an oath^m to Yahweh. Do to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh gave vengeance to you against your enemies, the Ammonites.”^{n 37}And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander^o on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions. ³⁸And he said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow; and she did not sleep with a man.^p And it became an annual custom in Israel ⁴⁰for the daughters of Israel to go and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for forty days of the year.