that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
"If God’s mind can change for the sake of graciously allowing people to live, why cannot Jephthah change his mind [about slaying his daughter]? At other places in the Old Testament, God even breaks the Torah in order to allow the people to live-for instance, inviting an adulterous people to return instead of killing them (see Jeremiah 3:11-14), and allowing Israel, the disobedient child, to be spared rather than stoned (see Hosea 11:1-9). In Jephthah’s case, Jephthah could actually have appealed to the Torah as support for not sacrificing his child. But he does not. Where are the imaginative diplomatic skills of Judges 11:12-28, where Jephthah shows detailed awareness of Numbers 21, a Torah narrative?" [Note: McCann, pp. 84-85.] 