Judges 21
1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us
give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
2 And the people came to Beth-el, and sat there till even before God, and lifted
up their voices, and wept sore.
3 And they said, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in
Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?
4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there
an altar, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.
5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel
that came not up in the assembly unto Jehovah? For they had made a great oath
concerning him that came not up unto Jehovah to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely
be put to death.
6 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said,
There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by
Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
8 And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up unto
Jehovah to Mizpah? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead
to the assembly.
9 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants
of Jabesh-gilead there.
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and
commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the
edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
11 And this is the thing that ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male,
and every woman that hath lain by man.
12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young
virgins, that had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them unto
the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 And the whole congregation sent and spake to the children of Benjamin that
were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace unto them.
14 And Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they
had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them
not.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that Jehovah had made a
breach in the tribes of Israel.
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them
that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that are escaped of
Benjamin, that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.
18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of
Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19 And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah from year to year in
Shiloh, which is on the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that
goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in
the vineyards,
21 and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the
dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of
the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto
us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took
not for each man [of them] his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto
them, else would ye now be guilty.
23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their
number, of them that danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned
unto their inheritance, and built the cities, and dwelt in them.
24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his
tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his
inheritance.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right
in his own eyes.