Judges 11:34–40

³⁴Then Jephthah came to his house at ^aMizpah. And behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him ^bwith tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.

³⁵So it happened that when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me. But I have opened my mouth to vow to Yahweh, and ^aI cannot take it back.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to vow to Yahweh; ^ado to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”

³⁷Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may ¹go to the mountains and weep because of ^amy virginity, I and my companions.”

³⁸Then he said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her companions and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

³⁹And it happened at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she did not know a man. Thus it became a ¹custom in Israel,

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went yearly to ¹commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.