Judges 11:38-40

Expanded Bible

³⁸ Jephthah said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months. She and her friends ·stayed [walked] in the mountains and ·cried for her because she would never marry [^Lwept for her virginity]. ³⁹ After two months she returned to her father, and Jephthah did to her what he had ·promised [vowed; v. 31]. Jephthah’s daughter ·never had a husband [or died a virgin; ^Lnever knew a man; ^Csome claim Jephthah committed her to lifelong service as a virgin at the sanctuary (Ex. 38:8); more likely, he literally fulfilled his rash vow (see next verse)].

From this came a custom in Israel that ⁴⁰ every year the young women of Israel would go out for four days to ·remember [commemorate] the daughter of Jephthah from Gilead.