Thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I did indeed mean Jephthah--it was 2 AM when it was posted.

After the post I was thinking about this and another factor came up. Whatever Jephthah did to his daughter, it was predicated on his allegiance to God, the moral obligation to honor his vow. Herod's fulfillment of his vow is explicitly said to be to avoid dishonor to himself, predicated on his allegiance to his own reputation and exultation. Hence, even if the actual acts were the same (which, as you point out, they probably weren't), they were not morally equivalent.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia