Before engaging in the attack, Jephthah made an oath to God that whatsoever came out of his house to meet him upon his safe return, that he would sacrifice to God in return for his conquest of his enemies.
Upon his arrival home, his daughter ran out to meet him, singing and dancing with timbrels to celebrate his success in battle. For Jephthah, it ws a sad day in Mizpah, for she was his only child and he swore that whatsoever thing that came out to meet him on his return would be sacrificed as a burnt offering to God.
The theme of the story runs throughout literature and particularly in fairytales. Jephthah makes a vow to sacrifice something in return for personal ambition. He is deeply concerned with his personal honor and social status-so much so that he does not recognize the self-destructive danger that ambition holds.
Often ambitions and goals do become self-destructive. There is a time to quit even though social pressures demand fulfillemt or obligation. The problem of honor and saving face in no-win situations is not limited to culture or to attaining world-moving events.
In Sleeping Beauty, the King and Queen desire a child, yet in their deep need to protect the child from any danger, they endanger it. Had the King provided the thirteenth plate and chatted up the thirteenth wise woman, perhaps she would have provided the gift of blessed old age rather than sudden death at the edge of maturity. The theme also reappears in the Grimm story of the Almond Tree.
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