In Gilead lived a man named Jephthah — a fierce warrior with fire in his blood and sorrow in his story. His father was Gilead, but his mother was a prostitute. Because of this, his half-brothers, the sons of Gilead's wife, despised him.
When they were grown, they drove him away.
"You'll have no share in our father's inheritance," they said coldly. "You are the son of another woman."
Rejected and alone, Jephthah fled to the land of Tob. There, he became the leader of a band of outcasts — rough men, adventurers, wanderers — who gathered around him and followed his command.
Years passed, and once again the Ammonites rose to make war against Israel. Desperate and trembling, the elders of Gilead remembered the exiled warrior.
They journeyed to Tob and said, "Come, Jephthah. Lead us into battle against the Ammonites."
Jephthah looked at them with bitter eyes. "You hated me," he reminded them. "You cast me out of my father's house. Why do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?"
But the elders pleaded, "We are turning to you now. Come fight for us, and you will be our ruler — head over all Gilead."
Jephthah asked carefully, "If I return and the Lord gives me victory over the Ammonites, will I truly be your leader?"
"The Lord is our witness," they vowed. "We will do as you say."
So Jephthah went with them. The people made him head and commander, and before the Lord in Mizpah, Jephthah repeated all his words.
Then he sent messengers to the king of Ammon, asking, "Why have you come to fight against my land?"
The Ammonite king replied, "When Israel came out of Egypt, they stole my land — from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and all the way to the Jordan. Return it peacefully."
Jephthah sent word back:
"Israel took no land from Moab or Ammon. When we came from Egypt, we went through the desert to Kadesh. We asked Edom for passage — they refused. We asked Moab — they also refused. So we journeyed around their lands and camped beyond the Arnon, which is Moab's border.
Then we asked Sihon, king of the Amorites, to let us pass through his territory, but he gathered his army and fought us. The Lord, the God of Israel, gave us victory, and we took the Amorite lands.
If your god Chemosh gives you land, you keep it. So whatever our God gives us, we will keep as well. Are you greater than Balak, king of Moab? He never fought us for this land. For three hundred years Israel has lived in these towns — why didn't you reclaim them then?
I have done you no wrong, but you do me wrong by making war. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide between us today."
But the king of Ammon ignored Jephthah's words.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He marched through Gilead and Manasseh, through Mizpah, and advanced toward the Ammonites. And before battle, Jephthah made a solemn vow:
"If You will give me victory, Lord, then whatever comes out of the door of my house to greet me when I return — I will offer it up as a burnt sacrifice to You."
The battle was fierce, but God gave Jephthah victory. He struck down the Ammonites, capturing twenty towns from Aroer to Abel Keramim. Israel triumphed; Ammon was subdued.
When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, joy turned to horror. Running out to greet him was his only child — his daughter — dancing with tambourines, her face radiant with pride for her father's victory.
Jephthah tore his clothes and cried, "Oh, my daughter! You have broken my heart! I made a vow to the Lord — a vow I cannot break."
She looked at him gently and said, "My father, you have given your word to the Lord. Do as you promised, for He has given you victory over your enemies. Only grant me this — let me go to the hills for two months and weep with my friends, for I will never marry."
Jephthah agreed. For two months she and her companions roamed the mountains, mourning her fate.
When she returned, her father fulfilled the vow he had made. She died without ever knowing a man.
From that day, it became a custom in Israel: each year, the young women of the land would go out for four days to honor the memory of Jephthah's daughter — the one who kept her father's vow.