Jephthah the Gileadite was a brave man. He was the son of a harlot; Jephthah was born from Gilead. And the wife of Gilead bare him sons. When the wife's sons grew up, they expelled Jephthah, saying to him: "You are not an heir in our father's house, because you are the son of another woman." And Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and the idle people gathered to Jephthah and went out with him.
After some time the Ammonites went to war against Israel. During the war between the Ammonites and the Israelites, the elders of Gilead came to take Jephthah from the land of Tob and said to Jephthah:
“Come, be our leader, and let us fight the Ammonites.”
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead:
“Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s house?” Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah:
“For this reason we have now come to you, so that you can go with us and fight the Ammonites and be our leader over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead:
“If you bring me back to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them to me, will I still be your leader?”
The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah:
- Let the Lord be a witness between us that we will do according to your word!
And Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him ruler and leader over them, and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah... And the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went to the Ammonites.
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, then when I return in peace from the Ammonites, whatever comes out of the gate of my house to meet me will be to the Lord, and I will offer it as a burnt offering.”
And Jephthah came to the Ammonites to fight with them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands; and he smote them with a very great slaughter, from Aroer to Minith, twenty cities, and to Abel-keramim, and the Ammonites humbled themselves before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and faces: he had only one of her, and he had neither son nor daughter yet. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said:
- Oh, my daughter! You struck me down; and you are among the disturbers of my peace! I have opened my mouth for you before the Lord and cannot deny you.
She told him:
- My father! You have opened your mouth to the Lord, and do to me what your mouth said when the Lord took vengeance through you on your enemies the Ammonites. “And she said to her father, “Just do this to me: let me go for two months; I will go, climb the mountains and mourn my virginity with my friends.
He said:
- Go.
And he let her go for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity in the mountains.
After two months had passed, she returned to her father, and he fulfilled his vow to her, which he had made, and she did not know her husband. And it became a custom among Israel that the daughters of Israel went every year to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days a year.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru