30 Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand,

31 then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

32 So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord gave them into his hand.

33 He struck them with a very great slaughter from Aroer 1to the entrance of aMinnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

34 When Jephthah came to his house at aMizpah, 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.

35 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; for I have 1given my word to the Lord, and aI cannot take it back.”

36 So she said to him, “My father, you have 1given your word to the Lord; ado to me 2as you have said, since the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”

37 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.”

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

39 At the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she 1had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel,

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

Chapter 12

Jephthah and His Successors

1 Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed 1to Zaphon and asaid to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you.”

2 Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon; when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand.

3 “When I saw that you would not deliver me, I 1atook my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

4 Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead 1defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.”

5 The Gileadites acaptured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

6 then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’ ” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not 1pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim.

7 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.