After a time the Ammonites made war against the Israelites. Then the
elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob, and they
said to him, "Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the
Ammonites." But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the
men who hated me and drove me out of my father's house? Why then do you
come to me now when you are in trouble?" But the elders of Gilead said
to Jephthah, "This is why we have now turned to you, that you may go
with us and fight against the Ammonites, and you shall be our chief,
even over all the people who live in Gilead." Then Jephthah said to the
rulers of Gilead, "If you take me back to fight against the Ammonites
and Jehovah gives me the victory over them, I shall be your chief." The
elders of Gilead replied, "Jehovah shall be a witness between us; we
swear to do as you say."

Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him
chief and commander over them. Jephthah also made this vow to Jehovah:
"If thou wilt deliver the Ammonites into my power, then whoever comes
out of the door of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from
the Ammonites, shall be Jehovah's, and I will offer that one as an
offering to be burned with fire."

So Jephthah went out to fight against the Ammonites; and Jehovah gave
him the victory over them, and delivered them into his hands. But when
he came home to Mizpah, his daughter was just coming out to meet him
with tambourines and choral dances. She was his only child; besides this
one he had neither son nor daughter. So when he saw her, he tore his
clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter, you have stricken me! It is you who
are the cause of my woe! for I have made a solemn vow to Jehovah and
cannot break it." She said to him, "My father, you have made a solemn
vow to Jehovah; do to me what you have promised, since Jehovah has
punished your enemies the Ammonites. But let this favor be granted me:
spare me two months that I may go out upon the mountains with those who
would have been my bridesmaids and lament because I will never become a
wife and mother." He said, "Go."

So he sent her away for two months with her friends, and she mourned on
the mountains because she would never become a wife and mother. At the
end of two months she returned to her father, who did what he had vowed
to do, even though she had never been married. So it became a custom in
Israel: each year the women of Israel