^21:11Do this:¹⁵ exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male.¹⁶ But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed.¹⁷^21:12They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins—they had never had sexual relations with a male.¹⁸ They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

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Footnotes

15 Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”
16 Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”
17 Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “ ‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbétulot tékhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vé’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.
18 Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

This is what you shall do: every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction.” And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

“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.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

This is what you should do: Completely destroy every male, as well as every woman who has gone to bed with a man.” They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not been intimate with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

NLTNew Living Translation

“This is what you are to do,” they said. “Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin.” Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found 400 young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

This is the thing you will do: you will destroy every man and every woman who had sex with a man.” And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not had sex with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

KJV 1900King James Version

And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. And 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 Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

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