How the remaining men of Benjamin got wives
21
📚Now the men of Israel had made an oath in Mizpeh, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin in marriage”.21:1 Note on vows at Jud 11:30-31. This one had a curse on anyone who broke it (v 18).⚜
2 📚And the people came to the house of God 📖, and stayed there until evening before God and raised their voices and wept bitterly. 3 📚And they said, “O LORD God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?”
4 📚And it came about the next day that the people rose early and built there an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
21:2-4 Verses 6,15. The experience of civil war resulted in some brokenness of spirit – a flower that blossomed from the muck of the occasion, great good in the midst of a terrible disaster (compare Ps 51:17).⚜
5 📚And the children of Israel said, “Among all the tribes of Israel who is there who did not come up with the congregation to the LORD?” For they had made a great oath concerning the one who did not come to Mizpeh to the LORD, saying, “He shall surely be put to death 📖”.
6 📚And the children of Israel were grieved for Benjamin their brother and said, “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel. 7 📚What shall we do about wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them our daughters in marriage?” 8 📚And they said, “Which of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpeh to the LORD?” And, lo and behold, no one from Jabesh-Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. 9 For the people were numbered, and, lo and behold, none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead were there.
10 📚And the congregation sent twelve thousand of the bravest men there and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. 11 📚And this is what you must do: utterly destroy every male and every woman that has lain with a man”.
21:10-11 This was in fulfillment of the vow of v 5.⚜
12 📚And they found four hundred young virgins among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead who had not known a man by lying with him. And they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 📚And the whole congregation sent some men to speak to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock Rimmon, and to proclaim peace to them. 14 📚And at that time Benjamin came out again; and they gave to them in marriage those women of Jabesh-Gilead whom they had saved alive. But still they were not sufficient for them.
15 📚And the people were grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. 16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do about wives for those who are left, since the women in Benjamin have been destroyed?” 17 📚And they said, “There must be an inheritance for those of Benjamin who have escaped, so that a tribe of Israel is not destroyed. 18 📚However, we must not give them our daughters in marriage, for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, ‘Cursed be the one who gives anyone in marriage to Benjamin.’ ”
21:18 Verse 1.⚜
19 📚Then they said, “Look, there is an annual feast of the LORD in Shiloh in a place to the north of Bethel, to the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and to the south of Lebonah”.
20 So they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards 21 📚and watch, and when the daughters of Shiloh come out to take part in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh 📖, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22 📚And it shall come about, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, that we will say to them, ‘Do this favour to them for our sakes; because we did not take a wife for each man in battle. And you did not give wives to them at this time, that you should be guilty.’ ”
23 📚And the children of Benjamin did so, and they caught some of those who were dancing and took wives for themselves, according to their number. And they went away and returned to their inheritance and repaired the cities and lived in them.
24 And the children of Israel left there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family, and each man left there and went to his inheritance.
25 📚In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes 📖.