Jephthes, sive Votum[a] (translated into English as Jephtha, or the Vow) is a tragedy by Scottish historian and humanist scholar George Buchanan first published in 1554.
Based on the biblical account of Jephthah and the sacrifice of his daughter in the Book of Judges, Buchanan wrote the play while he was a teacher in France.
In the prologue, an angel explains how Israel has incurred the wrath of God and is like "a horse which must suffer the bit and spur it will remember its duty.
"[2] He announces Israel's victory over Ammon;[3] the Israelites are led by the God-fearing Jephthah, who vows while returning home from the war[3] to "make a burnt offering to Jehovah of whomever comes out first to meet him from his house.
[12] The structure of Jephthes takes after that of Iphigenia in Aulis,[11][13] though its plot is based on the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Judges, which revolve around the head of the Gileadite army, Jephthah, who has to sacrifice his daughter as part of a vow made to God.