First Reading

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.

He passed through Gilead and Manasseh,

and through Mizpah-Gilead as well,

and from there he went on to the Ammonites.

Jephthah made a vow to the Lord.

“If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said,

“whoever comes out of the doors of my house

to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites

shall belong to the Lord.

I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.”

Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them,

and the Lord delivered them into his power,

so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them,

from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all)

and as far as Abel-keramim.

Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection

by the children of Israel.

When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah,

it was his daughter who came forth,

playing the tambourines and dancing.

She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her.

When he saw her, he rent his garments and said,

“Alas, daughter, you have struck me down

and brought calamity upon me.

For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract.”

She replied, “Father, you have made a vow to the Lord.

Do with me as you have vowed,

because the Lord has wrought vengeance for you

on your enemies the Ammonites.”

Then she said to her father, “Let me have this favor.

Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains

to mourn my virginity with my companions.”

“Go,” he replied, and sent her away for two months.

So she departed with her companions

and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

At the end of the two months she returned to her father,

who did to her as he had vowed.