Seila, the Daughter of Jephthah

1 Jephthah came and fought against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into his hand, and he struck sixty of their cities. Jephthah returned in peace. The women came out to meet him with dances. He had an only begotten daughter; she came out first in the dances to meet her father. When Jephthah saw her, he fainted and said, “Rightly is your name called Seila, that you should be offered for a sacrifice. Now who will put my heart in the balance and weigh my soul? I will stand and see whether one will outweigh the other, the rejoicing that has come or the affliction that comes upon me; for I have opened my mouth to my Lord in the song of my vows, and I cannot take it back.” 2 Seila his daughter said to him, “Who is it that can be sorrowful in their death when they see the people delivered? Do you not remember what happened in the days of our fathers, when the father set his son for a burnt offering, and he did not refuse him but consented to him with joy?⁠a And the one who was offered was ready, and the one who offered was glad. 3 “Now therefore do not annul anything of what you have vowed, but grant me one prayer. I ask of you one small request before I die: I beg you that before I give up my soul, I may go into the mountains and wander among the hills and walk about among the rocks, I and the virgins who are my companions, and pour out my tears there and tell of the affliction of my youth; and the trees of the field will weep for me and the beasts of the field will lament for me. For I am not sorrowful that I die, nor does it grieve me that I give up my soul; but because my father was overtaken in his vow, if I do not offer myself willingly for a sacrifice, I fear that my death may not be acceptable, and that I will lose my life for nothing. These things I will tell to the mountains, and afterward I will return.” And her father said, “Go.” 4 Seila the daughter of Jephthah went out, she and the virgins who were her companions, and came and told it to the wise men of the people. And no man could answer her words. After that she went into Mount Stelac, and by night the Lord thought upon her and said, “I have now shut up the tongue of the wise among my people before this generation, so that they could not answer the word of the daughter of Jephthah, that my word might be fulfilled and my counsel not destroyed which I had devised; and I have seen that she is wiser than her father, and a maiden of more understanding than all the wise who are here. Now let her life be given her at her request, and her death will be precious in my sight at all times.”

Seila's Lament

5 When the daughter of Jephthah came to Mount Stelac, she began to lament. This is her lament with which she mourned and wept for herself before she departed, and she said, “Listen, O mountains, to my lament, and look, O hills, upon the tears of my eyes, and be witness, O rocks, to the weeping of my soul. See how I am accused, but my soul will not be taken away in vain. Let my words go forth into the heavens, and let my tears be written before the face of the firmament, that the father may not fight against his daughter whom he has vowed to offer up, that her ruler may hear that his only begotten daughter is promised for a sacrifice. 6 “Yet I have not been satisfied with my marriage bed, nor filled with the garlands of my wedding. I have not been arrayed with brightness, sitting in my maidenhood; I have not used my precious ointment, nor has my soul enjoyed the oil of anointing that was prepared for me. O my mother, in vain you bore your only begotten and bore her upon the earth, for hell has become my marriage chamber. Let all the blending of oil you have prepared for me be poured out, and the white robe my mother wove for me, let the moth eat it; and the crown of flowers my nurse plaited for me before, let it wither; and the coverlet she wove of violet and purple for my virginity, let the worm spoil it; and when the virgins, my companions, tell of me, let them weep for me with groaning for many days. 7 “Bow down your branches, O trees, and lament my youth. Come, you beasts of the forest, and trample upon my virginity; for my years are cut off, and the days of my life have grown old in darkness.” 8 When she had said this, Seila returned to her father, and he did all that he had vowed and offered burnt offerings. Then all the maidens of Israel gathered together and buried the daughter of Jephthah and wept for her. The children of Israel made a great lament and appointed that in that month, on the 14th day, they should come together every year and lament for the daughter of Jephthah four days. And they called the name of her tomb according to her own name, Seila. Jephthah judged the children of Israel ten years, and died, and was buried with his fathers.