Judges 11:34-40

New Catholic Bible

³⁴ When Jephthah came back to Mizpah, to his home, it was his daughter who came out to meet him dancing and playing the tambourines. (She was his only child, for beside her there were no other sons or daughters.) ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Woe is me, for my daughter has made me miserable and wretched. I made a vow to the Lord; I cannot break it.” ³⁶ “My father,” she said, “you have made a vow to the Lord. Do to me what you have vowed to do, for the Lord has taken vengeance for you upon your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ Only let me do this one thing, my father,” she continued, “may I roam around the hill country to mourn my virginity, for I will never marry.” ³⁸ He answered, “Go!” She and her friends went into the hill country for two months, mourning her virginity. ³⁹ When the two months were over, she returned to her father. He did what he had promised in his vow to do to her. She never knew any man. This is why there is a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ for young women in Israel to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year.