The Fulfillment of the Tragic Vow

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As Yiftach was returning to his house in Mitzpah, his daughter came dancing out to meet him with tambourines. She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter.

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When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, no, my daughter! You're breaking my heart! Why must you be the cause of such pain to me? I made a vow to ADONAI, and I can't go back on my word."

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She said to him, "Father, you made a vow to ADONAI; so do whatever you said you would do to me; because ADONAI did take vengeance on your enemies the people of 'Amon."

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Then she said to her father, "Just do this one thing for me - let me be alone for two months. I'll go away into the mountains with my friends and mourn, because I will die without getting married."

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"You may go," he answered, and he sent her away for two months. She left, she and her friends, and mourned in the mountains that she would die unmarried.

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After two months she returned to her father, and he did with her what he had vowed; she had remained a virgin. So it became a law in Isra'el

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that the women of Isra'el would go every year for four days to lament the daughter of Yiftach from Gil'ad.

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