Judges 11:34–40

³⁴When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing^u to the sound of timbrels!^v She was an only child.^w Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵When he saw her, he tore his clothes^x and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.^y”

³⁶“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised,^z now that the Lord has avenged you^a of your enemies,^b the Ammonites. ³⁷But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

³⁸“You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. ³⁹After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite tradition ⁴⁰that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.