Judges 21

21Now the men of Israel had sworn in ^aMizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife. ²And the people came ^bto the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore; ³And said, O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel? ⁴And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and ^cbuilt there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ⁵And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the Lord? For they had made a great oath concerning him ^dthat came not up to the Lord to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death. ⁶And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. ⁷How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? ⁸And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the Lord? And, behold, there came none to the camp from ^eJabesh-gilead to the assembly. ⁹For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there. ¹⁰And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, ^fGo and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. ¹¹And this is the thing that ye shall do, ^gYe shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that ^†hath lain by man. ¹²And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred ^†young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to ^hShiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. ¹³And the whole congregation sent some ^†to speak to the children of Benjamin ⁱthat were in the rock Rimmon, and to ^||call peaceably unto them. ¹⁴And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they ^jsufficed them not. ¹⁵And the people ^krepented them for Benjamin, because that the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶Then the elders of the congregation said, ^lHow shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? ¹⁷And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel. ¹⁸Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: ^mfor the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin. ¹⁹Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh ^†yearly in a place which is on the north side of ⁿBeth-el, ^||on the east side ^||of the ^ohighway that goeth up from ⁿBeth-el to ^pShechem, and on the south of Lebonah. ²⁰Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; ²¹And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in ^qdances, 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. ²²And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, ^||Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty. ²³And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and ^rrepaired the cities, and dwelt in them. ²⁴And 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. ^25sIn those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.