Jueces 21

The tribes grieve for Benjamin

¹Now the men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “None of us will give his daughter in marriage to a man of Benjamin.” ²The people went to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, weeping aloud and bitterly. ³“The LORD, God of Israel,” they cried, “why has this happened in Israel? Why should Israel be missing one of its tribes today?” ⁴Early the next morning the people built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

Wives from Jabesh-gilead

⁵Then the Israelites asked, “Is there anyone from all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the LORD?” For they had bound themselves by a solemn oath: whoever stayed away from the LORD at Mizpah must be put to death. ⁶But the Israelites grieved for their brother tribe Benjamin. “Today,” they said, “one tribe has been cut off from Israel. ⁷How can we provide wives for the men who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?” ⁸So they asked, “Who from the tribes of Israel did not come up to the LORD at Mizpah?” It turned out that not a single man from Jabesh-gilead had come into the camp to join the assembly. ⁹When the people were counted, not one of those who lived in Jabesh-gilead was there. ¹⁰So the congregation sent 12,000 of its best fighting men there with these orders: “Go and put the people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, the women and children too. ¹¹Here is what you must do: every male, and every woman who has slept with a man, you are to devote to destruction.” ¹²Among the people of Jabesh-gilead they found 400 young women who were virgins and had never slept with a man. These they brought to the camp at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan.

¹³Then the whole congregation sent word to the Benjaminites at the rock of Rimmon and offered them peace. ¹⁴So Benjamin came back at that time, and they were given the women of Jabesh-gilead whom the Israelites had spared. But there were not enough for them all. ¹⁵The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had torn a gap in the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶Then the elders of the congregation said, “How can we provide wives for the men who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been wiped out?” ¹⁷They said, “The survivors of Benjamin must have heirs to keep their inheritance, so that a tribe is not wiped out of Israel.^{a 18}Yet we cannot give them our daughters as wives, because the Israelites have sworn, ‘A curse on anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin!’”

The dance at Shiloh

¹⁹Then they said, “Look, every year there is a festival of the LORD at Shiloh.” (Shiloh lies north of Bethel and south of Lebonah, east of the highway that runs up from Bethel to Shechem.)^{b 20}So they instructed the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards and wait, ²¹and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, rush out of the vineyards, and each of you seize a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh. Then go back to the land of Benjamin. ²²When their fathers or brothers come to us to protest, we will tell them, ‘Do us a kindness and let them keep the women, because we did not take a wife for each of them in the war. And since you did not give them your daughters, you are not guilty of breaking the oath.’”^c

²³The Benjaminites did just that. They carried off as many wives as there were men, from the dancers they had seized, and went back to their own land. They rebuilt their towns and settled in them. ²⁴At that time the Israelites left that place and went home, each man to his own tribe and clan, each to his own land. ²⁵In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what they thought was right.