Judges:21

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah , saying , None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife . * And the people came to the house of God , and remained there before God till evening , and lifted up their voices and wept with great weeping , * and said , O Jehovah the God of Israel , why has this come to pass in Israel , that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel ? * And it came to pass the next morning , that the people arose early and built an altar there , and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings . * And the children of Israel said , Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to Jehovah ? For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to Jehovah at Mizpah , saying , He shall die the death . * And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother , and said , One tribe is cut off from Israel today . * What shall we do for wives for those who remain , seeing we have sworn by Jehovah not to give them our daughters as wives ? * And they said , What one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Mizpah to Jehovah ? And , behold , no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly . * For when the people were numbered , behold , not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead was there . * And the congregation sent out there twelve thousand of their most valiant men , and commanded them , saying , Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword , including the women and children . * And this is the thing that you shall do : You shall utterly destroy every male , and every woman who has known a man by lying with him . * And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins 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 . * And the whole congregation sent word to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon , and proclaimed peace to them . * And Benjamin came back at that time , and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead ; and yet they had not found enough for them . * And the people grieved for Benjamin , because Jehovah had made a breach in the tribes of Israel . * And the elders of the congregation said , What shall we do for wives for those who remain , since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed ? * And they said , There must be an inheritance for the remnant of Benjamin , that a tribe may not be destroyed from Israel . * However , we cannot give them wives from our daughters , for the children of Israel have sworn , saying , Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin . * Then they said , Behold , there is a yearly feast of Jehovah in Shiloh , which is north of Bethel , on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem , and south of Lebonah . * Therefore they commanded the sons of Benjamin , saying , Go , lie in wait in the vineyards , * and watch ; and when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance their dances , then come out from the vineyards , and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh ; and go to the land of Benjamin . * And it shall be , when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain , that we will say to them , Be gracious to them for our sakes , because we did not take a wife for any of them in the war ; for it is not as though you have given the women to them at this time , thus making yourselves guilty of your oath . * And the sons of Benjamin did so ; they took enough wives for their number from those who danced , whom they caught . And they went and returned to their inheritance , and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them . * So the sons of Israel departed from there at that time , every man to his tribe and family ; they departed from there , every man to his inheritance . * In those days there was no king in Israel . Every man did what was right in his own eyes .

---