35. When Jephthah saw his daughter, he tore his clothes to show his sorrow. He said, “My daughter! You have made me so sad because I made a promise to the Lord, and I cannot break it!”
36. Then his daughter said, “Father, you made a promise to the Lord. So do to me just what you promised, because the Lord helped you defeat your enemies, the Ammonites.”
37. She also said, “But let me do one thing. Let me be alone for two months to go to the mountains. Since I will never marry, let me and my friends go and cry together.”
38. Jephthah said, “Go.” So he sent her away for two months. She and her friends stayed in the mountains and cried for her because she would never marry.
39. After two months she returned to her father, and Jephthah did to her what he had promised. Jephthah’s daughter never had a husband.From this came a custom in Israel that
40. every year the young women of Israel would go out for four days to remember the daughter of Jephthah from Gilead.