Jephthah told God that if he would have the Ammonites given into his hand the first person he saw come out of his door at home he would offer as a burnt offering. When he came home his daughter ran out to meet him. He tore his clothes and was very sad. She asked if she could have two months to wander in the mountains with her friends and woe her virginity and how she would die without ever sleeping with a man.
There arose a custom of the daughters of Israel to go out and lament the daughter of Jephthah for four days.
This story made me cry. First, that her father had to come home victorious and rather than be happy to see his daughter he was so sad because he had to offer her up to God as a sacrifice. Second, that she never got to know love. Third, that she's not even mentioned by name. Poor Jephthah's daughter. What a sad fate.
