Judges
Chapter 21
1 The men of Israel promised in Mizpeh, “None of us will let our daughters marry men from Benjamin.”
2 The people went to God’s house, stayed there until evening, raised their voices, and cried a lot.
3 And said, O God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today one tribe is missing in Israel?
4 The next day, the people got up early, built an altar there, and made burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all Israel’s tribes didn’t join the group to meet with God? They had strongly promised to kill anyone who didn’t come to Mizpeh to meet with God.”
6 The people of Israel felt sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, “Today one tribe is missing from Israel.”
7 What can we do to find wives for those who are left, since we have promised with a strong oath that we will not let them marry our daughters?
8 They asked, “Who from the tribes of Israel didn’t come to Mizpeh to God?” And no one from Jabeshgilead came to the camp for the meeting.
9 The people were counted, and look, no one from Jabesh-gilead was there.
10 The group sent twelve thousand brave men and told them, “Go and defeat the people of Jabeshgilead with the sword, including the women and children.”
11 This is what you must do: You must kill every man and every woman who has slept with a man.
12 They found 400 young women in Jabesh Gilead who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
13 The whole group sent messengers to talk to the Benjamite people at the rock Rimmon, inviting them peacefully.
14 Benjamin returned then, and they were given wives from the saved women of Jabeshgilead, but there were not enough women for them.
15 The people felt sorry for Benjamin because God had caused a split among the tribes of Israel.
16 Then the community leaders asked, “What will we do to find wives for the remaining men when the women of Benjamin have been killed?”
17 They said, “There must be a share for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe is not wiped out from Israel.”
18 But we can’t give them our daughters as wives because the Israelites have made a promise, saying, “May the man who gives a wife to Benjamin be cursed.”
19 They said, “Look, every year there’s a festival for God in Shiloh, north of Bethel, east of the road leading from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
20 They told the people of Benjamin, “Go and hide in the vineyards.”
21 Look, and if the girls from Shiloh come out to dance, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch a wife from the girls of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will ask them to forgive them for our sake: we didn’t save a wife for each man in the war because you didn’t give them their wives now, so you aren’t to blame.
23 The men of Benjamin did this, and each took a wife from the dancing women they captured. They went back to their land, fixed their cities, and lived there.
24 The Israelites left from there at that time, each person to their own tribe and family, and each went to their own land.
25 At that time, there was no king in Israel; everyone just did what they thought was right.