Behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. — As Miriam went to meet Moses (Exodus 15:20), and the women to meet Saul and David (1 Samuel 18:6-7).
His only child. — This is added because the narrator feels the full pathos of the story. (Comp. Genesis 22:2; Jeremiah 6:26; Luke 9:38.) The term used (yechidah) is peculiarly tender. The “beside her” is, literally, beside him; but this is only duo to a Hebrew idiom, which is also found in Zechariah 8:10.