Judges
21
- The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah:
"Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite."
- The people went to Bethel, where they sat
before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly.
- "O LORD, the God of Israel," they
cried, "why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing
from Israel today ?"
- Early the next day the people built an altar
and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.
- Then the Israelites asked, "Who from
all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the LORD?" For
they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the
LORD at Mizpah should certainly be put to death.
- Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers,
the Benjamites. "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel," they said.
- "How can we provide wives for those
who are left, since we have taken an oath by the LORD not to give them any
of our daughters in marriage ?"
- Then they asked, "Which one of the
tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah?" They
discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly.
- For when they counted the people, they found
that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there.
- So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting
men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living
there, including the women and children.
- "This is what you are to do,"
they said. "Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin."
- They found among the people living in Jabesh
Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took
them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
- Then the whole assembly sent an offer of
peace to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon.
- So the Benjamites returned at that time
and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were
not enough for all of them.
- The people grieved for Benjamin, because
the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.
- And the elders of the assembly said, "With
the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who
are left ?
- The Benjamite survivors must have heirs,"
they said, "so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.
- We can't give them our daughters as wives,
since we Israelites have taken this oath: 'Cursed be anyone who gives a wife
to a Benjamite.'
- But look, there is the annual festival of
the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east of the road that goes
from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah."
- So they instructed the Benjamites, saying,
"Go and hide in the vineyards
- and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come
out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize
a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.
- When their fathers or brothers complain
to us, we will say to them, 'Do us a kindness by helping them, because we
did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you
did not give your daughters to them.'"
- So that is what the Benjamites did. While
the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his
wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled
in them.
- At that time the Israelites left that place
and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance.
- In those days Israel had no king; everyone
did as he saw fit.
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