³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh, and he said, “If indeed you will give the Ammonites^[a] into my hand,

³¹ whatever^[a] comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the Ammonites^[b] will be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it as a burnt offering.”

³⁴ Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. She was his only child; he did not have a son or daughter except her. ³⁵ And the moment he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Ah! My daughter, you have caused me to bow down, and you have become my trouble. I made an oath^[a] to Yahweh, and I cannot take it back.” ³⁶ She said to him, “My father, you made an oath^[b] to Yahweh. Do to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh gave vengeance to you against your enemies, the Ammonites.”^{[c] 37} And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander^[d] on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions. ³⁸ And he said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains. ³⁹ At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow; and she did not sleep with a man.^[e] And it became an annual custom in Israel ⁴⁰ for the daughters of Israel to go and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for forty days of the year.