Chapter Twenty-One

1. The oath sworn by the Israelites at Mizpah. 2–7. The people’s sorrow regarding the possible destruction of the tribe of Benjamin. 8–14. The destruction of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead and the giving of the surviving maidens to the surviving Benjamites. 15–24. The abduction of the maidens of Shiloh to provide wives for the Benjamites. 25. A general characterization of the time of the judges of Israel.

Judges 21:1. And the Israelites swore at Mizpah, saying: None of us shall give his daughter in marriage to a son of Benjamin. Judges 21:2. And the people came to the house of God and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices with loud weeping and bitter tears, Judges 21:3. and said: O Lord, God of Israel! Why has this come to pass in Israel, that there is now lacking one tribe in Israel? Judges 21:4. On the next day the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Judges 21:5. And the sons of Israel said: Who of all the tribes of Israel did not come before the Lord? For a great curse had been pronounced against those who did not come before the Lord at Mizpah; and it was said that those should be put to death. Judges 21:6. And the sons of Israel had compassion on Benjamin, their brother, and said: Now one tribe is cut off from Israel; Judges 21:7. What shall we do about the survivors regarding wives, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them wives from our daughters? Under the influence of strong anger against the Benjamites, the remaining eleven tribes of Israel, before the beginning of the war against them, took an oath at Mizpah not to give their daughters in marriage to them. As a result of the fulfillment of this oath by the Israelites, the tribe of Benjamin, considering that the Israelites could not marry Canaanite women (Exod 34:16; Deut 7:3), was threatened with complete extinction. Aware of this, the Israelites grieved over such a sad future for one of the glorious tribes of the entire people of Israel (Gen 49:27; Deut 33:12) and, having gathered in the city of Bethel, where the ark of the covenant was at that time, offered sacrifices to the Lord on account of this and at the same time asked about those Israelites who had not appeared at the assembly of the community of Israel at Mizpah and were thus as it were free from the oath taken by the community.

Judges 21:8. And they said: Is there anyone among the tribes of Israel who did not come before the Lord at Mizpah? And it was found that no one from Jabesh-Gilead had come before the Lord at the camp of the assembly. Judges 21:9. And the people were mustered, and behold, there was not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead. Judges 21:10. And the community sent twelve thousand strong men there, and commanded them, saying: Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the sword, both women and children; Judges 21:11. and do this: every male and every woman who has known the marriage bed, put to death, [but spare the virgin females. And they did so]. Judges 21:12. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred virgin females who had not known a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. Judges 21:13. And the whole assembly sent word to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. Judges 21:14. Then the sons of Benjamin returned [to the Israelites], and [the Israelites] gave them [the Israelites] the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-Gilead; but this was not sufficient. After the investigation showed that no one from the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, which lay on the west side of the Jordan, where now is Wadi Yabis, flowing into the Jordan below Scythopolis, had come to the assembly of the community of Israel at Mizpah, the community of Israel sent a detachment of warriors to completely destroy the inhabitants of Jabesh, except for the virgin females who had not known the marriage bed. The four hundred virgins thus left alive were given in marriage to the six hundred surviving Benjamites.

Judges 21:15. And the people grieved over Benjamin, because the Lord had not preserved the integrity of the tribes of Israel. Judges 21:16. And the elders of the assembly said: What shall we do about those who remain, regarding wives, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed? Judges 21:17. And they said: The inherited land shall remain secure for the surviving sons of Benjamin, so that a tribe may not be wiped out from Israel; Judges 21:18. but we cannot give them wives from our daughters; for the sons of Israel swore, saying: Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. Judges 21:19. And they said: Behold, there is a festival of the Lord each year at Shiloh, which is to the north of Bethel and to the east of the road that leads from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah. Judges 21:20. And they commanded the sons of Benjamin and said: Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, Judges 21:21. and watch, when the maidens of Shiloh come out to dance in the festive round, then come out from the vineyards and seize each one a wife from the maidens of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin; Judges 21:22. and when their fathers or their brothers come with a complaint to us, we will say to them: Grant them to us as a favor, for we did not take a wife for each one of them in the war, and you have not given them; now you are guilty. Judges 21:23. And the sons of Benjamin did so, and took wives according to their number from those who were dancing in the festive round, whom they carried off, and went and returned to their inheritance, and built up the cities and dwelt in them. Judges 21:24. In that time the Israelites scattered from there each to his tribe and to his family, and went from there each to his own inheritance. To provide wives for the remaining two hundred Benjamites, they were permitted by the elders of the community to carry out an abduction of the maidens of Israel during the festival of booths, when the maidens would be dancing in festive rounds near Shiloh (now Seilun), along the road leading from Bethel to Shechem (Nablus) and from the south in the direction of Lebonah (now El-Lebun, near Seilun). The fact of the Benjamites’ abduction of wives for themselves has a similarity to the fact of a similar abduction by the Romans of the Sabine women for themselves as wives. After acquiring wives, the remaining Benjamites once again established families, built cities, and dwelt in them. Thus the tribe of Benjamin again acquired the possibility of its continuation in succession.

Judges 21:25. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what seemed right in his own sight. In conclusion of the book of Judges, the writer again makes a remark about the lack of government that existed then in the people (cf. Judg 17:6), whose sad consequence was, among other things, the facts described by him at the end of the book—the cult of Micah (the Danites) and the story of the Gibeonites (ch. XVII-XXI).