Judge Jephthah

Judges 11–12 tells that Jephthah the Gileadite, son of a prostitute, was driven out by his half-brothers and led a band of outlaws in the land of Tob. When the Ammonites attacked, Gilead's elders begged him to return as their commander. He first argued by letter to the Ammonite king that Israel had held the land for 300 years (Judges 11:26). When war came, he vowed that whatever came out of his house to meet him would be offered to the LORD, and defeated Ammon from Aroer to Minnith. His only daughter came out first with timbrels. She asked for two months to mourn on the mountains, then "he did to her as he had vowed", and the daughters of Israel lamented her four days every year. Ephraimites who challenged him were caught at the Jordan fords, unable to say "Shibboleth", and 42,000 fell. He judged six years.

Jewish commentators disagree on her fate: the Midrash assumes she was sacrificed and blames both Jephthah and the high priest Phinehas, whose pride kept them from meeting to annul the vow, while Ibn Ezra and Radak argued she was consecrated to a life of seclusion. "Shibboleth" became an English word for a password.