Judges 11:34-40

New King James Version

Jephthah’s Daughter

³⁴ When Jephthah came to his house at ^(A)Mizpah, there was ^(B)his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he ^(C)tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I ^(D)have ^[a]given my word to the Lord, and ^(E)I cannot ^[b]go back on it.”

³⁶ So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, ^(F)do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because ^(G)the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.” ³⁷ Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and ^[c]bewail my virginity, my ^[d]friends and I.”

³⁸ So he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he ^(H)carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She ^[e]knew no man.

And it became a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to ^[f]lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.