Judges 21

1Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah: “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.”

2So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They raised their voices and wept bitterly.

3They said, “Yahweh, God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today one tribe should be missing from Israel?”

4The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

5Then the Israelites asked, “Which of all the tribes of Israel did not come up to the assembly before Yahweh?” For they had taken a solemn oath concerning anyone who did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah: “He must be put to death.”

6The Israelites felt sorry for their brother Benjamin, and they said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel.

7What can we do to provide wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by Yahweh not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

8So they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah?” They found that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly.

9For when the people were counted, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.

10So the congregation sent twelve thousand of their best fighting men there and commanded them, “Go and put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including the women and the little children.

11This is what you are to do: devote to destruction every male and every woman who has slept with a man.”

12Among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young women who were virgins, who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

13Then the whole congregation sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon and offered them peace.

14So Benjamin came back at that time, and they gave them the women of Jabesh-gilead whom they had spared. But there were not enough for them.

15The people felt sorry for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

16Then the elders of the congregation said, “What can we do to provide wives for those who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been wiped out?”

17They said, “The survivors of Benjamin must have an inheritance, so that a tribe will not be blotted out of Israel.

18But we cannot give them our daughters as wives, because the Israelites have sworn, ‘Cursed is anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.’”

19So they said, “Look, there is the yearly festival of Yahweh at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

20So they instructed the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards

21and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, come out of the vineyards, and each of you seize a wife from the young women of Shiloh, and go back to the land of Benjamin.

22When their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Do us a favor and let them keep them, because we did not get a wife for each of them in the war. And since you did not give them to them yourselves, you are not guilty now.’”

23So the Benjaminites did this. They took wives for each of them from the dancers they had carried off. Then they went back to their inheritance, rebuilt the towns, and settled in them.

24At that time the Israelites left there, each to his own tribe and clan. Each one went out from there to his own inheritance.

25In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.